Instruction and logic for a matrix scheduler

ABSTRACT

A processor includes a core and a scheduler. The scheduler includes first and second dependency matrices and a ready determination unit. The scheduler also includes logic to queue a first parent operation, a second parent operation, and a child operation that includes first and second sources dependent on the first and second parent operations. The scheduler also includes logic to store physical addresses of the first and second sources of the child operation respectively in the first and second dependency matrices. Further, the scheduler includes logic to perform a tag comparisons between the respective physical addresses of the destinations of the first and second parent operations respectively with the respective physical address of the first and second sources of the child operation. In addition, the ready determination unit includes logic to determine that the child operation is ready for dispatch based on the tag comparisons.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure pertains to the field of processing logic, microprocessors, and associated instruction set architecture that, when executed by the processor or other processing logic, perform logical, mathematical, or other functional operations.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Multiprocessor systems are becoming more and more common. Applications of multiprocessor systems include dynamic domain partitioning all the way down to desktop computing. In order to take advantage of multiprocessor systems, code to be executed may be separated into multiple threads for execution by various processing entities. Each thread may be executed in parallel with one another. Furthermore, in order to increase the utility of a processing entity, out-of-order execution may be employed. Out-of-order execution may execute instructions as input to such instructions is made available. Thus, an instruction that appears later in a code sequence may be executed before an instruction appearing earlier in a code sequence.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the Figures of the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system formed with a processor that may include execution units to execute an instruction, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B illustrates a data processing system, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1C illustrates other embodiments of a data processing system for performing text string comparison operations;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the micro-architecture for a processor that may include logic circuits to perform instructions, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3A illustrates various packed data type representations in multimedia registers, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3B illustrates possible in-register data storage formats, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3C illustrates various signed and unsigned packed data type representations in multimedia registers, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3D illustrates an embodiment of an operation encoding format;

FIG. 3E illustrates another possible operation encoding format having forty or more bits, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3F illustrates yet another possible operation encoding format, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an in-order pipeline and a register renaming stage, out-of-order issue/execution pipeline, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an in-order architecture core and a register renaming logic, out-of-order issue/execution logic to be included in a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5B is a block diagram of an example implementation of a core, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a second system, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a third system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a system-on-a-chip, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a processor containing a central processing unit and a graphics processing unit which may perform at least one instruction, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the development of IP cores, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates how an instruction of a first type may be emulated by a processor of a different type, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram contrasting the use of a software instruction converter to convert binary instructions in a source instruction set to binary instructions in a target instruction set, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an instruction set architecture of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a more detailed block diagram of an instruction set architecture of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an execution pipeline for an instruction set architecture of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an electronic device for utilizing a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a system for scheduling instructions for execution, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating the functionality of a primary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 20A to 20C illustrate the use of a dual-mode dependency matrix to schedule operations, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of an example dependency matrix bit logic, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of an example embodiment of a method for scheduling uops in a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description describes an instruction and processing logic for scheduling operations using a dual-mode dependency matrix. A dependency matrix may be utilized to schedule a child operation for dispatch in one of two modes depending on the anticipated latency of a parent operation. The dependency matrix may be included in a processing apparatus. Such a processing apparatus may include an out-of-order processor. In the following description, numerous specific details such as processing logic, processor types, micro-architectural conditions, events, enablement mechanisms, and the like are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated, however, by one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without such specific details. Additionally, some well-known structures, circuits, and the like have not been shown in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure.

Although the following embodiments are described with reference to a processor, other embodiments are applicable to other types of integrated circuits and logic devices. Similar techniques and teachings of embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to other types of circuits or semiconductor devices that may benefit from higher pipeline throughput and improved performance. The teachings of embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to any processor or machine that performs data manipulations. However, the embodiments are not limited to processors or machines that perform 512-bit, 256-bit, 128-bit, 64-bit, 32-bit, or 16-bit data operations and may be applied to any processor and machine in which manipulation or management of data may be performed. In addition, the following description provides examples, and the accompanying drawings show various examples for the purposes of illustration. However, these examples should not be construed in a limiting sense as they are merely intended to provide examples of embodiments of the present disclosure rather than to provide an exhaustive list of all possible implementations of embodiments of the present disclosure.

Although the below examples describe instruction handling and distribution in the context of execution units and logic circuits, other embodiments of the present disclosure may be accomplished by way of a data or instructions stored on a machine-readable, tangible medium, which when performed by a machine cause the machine to perform functions consistent with at least one embodiment of the disclosure. In one embodiment, functions associated with embodiments of the present disclosure are embodied in machine-executable instructions. The instructions may be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor that may be programmed with the instructions to perform the steps of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as a computer program product or software which may include a machine or computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform one or more operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, steps of embodiments of the present disclosure might be performed by specific hardware components that contain fixed-function logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and fixed-function hardware components.

Instructions used to program logic to perform embodiments of the present disclosure may be stored within a memory in the system, such as DRAM, cache, flash memory, or other storage. Furthermore, the instructions may be distributed via a network or by way of other computer-readable media. Thus a machine-readable medium may include any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer), but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, Compact Disc, Read-Only Memory (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks, Read-Only Memory (ROMs), Random Access Memory (RAM), Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or a tangible, machine-readable storage used in the transmission of information over the Internet via electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.). Accordingly, the computer-readable medium may include any type of tangible machine-readable medium suitable for storing or transmitting electronic instructions or information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer).

A design may go through various stages, from creation to simulation to fabrication. Data representing a design may represent the design in a number of manners. First, as may be useful in simulations, the hardware may be represented using a hardware description language or another functional description language. Additionally, a circuit level model with logic and/or transistor gates may be produced at some stages of the design process. Furthermore, designs, at some stage, may reach a level of data representing the physical placement of various devices in the hardware model. In cases wherein some semiconductor fabrication techniques are used, the data representing the hardware model may be the data specifying the presence or absence of various features on different mask layers for masks used to produce the integrated circuit. In any representation of the design, the data may be stored in any form of a machine-readable medium. A memory or a magnetic or optical storage such as a disc may be the machine-readable medium to store information transmitted via optical or electrical wave modulated or otherwise generated to transmit such information. When an electrical carrier wave indicating or carrying the code or design is transmitted, to the extent that copying, buffering, or retransmission of the electrical signal is performed, a new copy may be made. Thus, a communication provider or a network provider may store on a tangible, machine-readable medium, at least temporarily, an article, such as information encoded into a carrier wave, embodying techniques of embodiments of the present disclosure.

In modern processors, a number of different execution units may be used to process and execute a variety of code and instructions. Some instructions may be quicker to complete while others may take a number of clock cycles to complete. The faster the throughput of instructions, the better the overall performance of the processor. Thus it would be advantageous to have as many instructions execute as fast as possible. However, there may be certain instructions that have greater complexity and require more in terms of execution time and processor resources, such as floating point instructions, load/store operations, data moves, etc.

As more computer systems are used in internet, text, and multimedia applications, additional processor support has been introduced over time. In one embodiment, an instruction set may be associated with one or more computer architectures, including data types, instructions, register architecture, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external input and output (I/O).

In one embodiment, the instruction set architecture (ISA) may be implemented by one or more micro-architectures, which may include processor logic and circuits used to implement one or more instruction sets. Accordingly, processors with different micro-architectures may share at least a portion of a common instruction set. For example, Intel® Pentium 4 processors, Intel® Core™ processors, and processors from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. of Sunnyvale Calif. implement nearly identical versions of the x86 instruction set (with some extensions that have been added with newer versions), but have different internal designs. Similarly, processors designed by other processor development companies, such as ARM Holdings, Ltd., MIPS, or their licensees or adopters, may share at least a portion a common instruction set, but may include different processor designs. For example, the same register architecture of the ISA may be implemented in different ways in different micro-architectures using new or well-known techniques, including dedicated physical registers, one or more dynamically allocated physical registers using a register renaming mechanism (e.g., the use of a Register Alias Table (RAT), a Reorder Buffer (ROB) and a retirement register file. In one embodiment, registers may include one or more registers, register architectures, register files, or other register sets that may or may not be addressable by a software programmer.

An instruction may include one or more instruction formats. In one embodiment, an instruction format may indicate various fields (number of bits, location of bits, etc.) to specify, among other things, the operation to be performed and the operands on which that operation will be performed. In a further embodiment, some instruction formats may be further defined by instruction templates (or sub-formats). For example, the instruction templates of a given instruction format may be defined to have different subsets of the instruction format's fields and/or defined to have a given field interpreted differently. In one embodiment, an instruction may be expressed using an instruction format (and, if defined, in a given one of the instruction templates of that instruction format) and specifies or indicates the operation and the operands upon which the operation will operate.

Scientific, financial, auto-vectorized general purpose, RMS (recognition, mining, and synthesis), and visual and multimedia applications (e.g., 2D/3D graphics, image processing, video compression/decompression, voice recognition algorithms and audio manipulation) may require the same operation to be performed on a large number of data items. In one embodiment, Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) refers to a type of instruction that causes a processor to perform an operation on multiple data elements. SIMD technology may be used in processors that may logically divide the bits in a register into a number of fixed-sized or variable-sized data elements, each of which represents a separate value. For example, in one embodiment, the bits in a 64-bit register may be organized as a source operand containing four separate 16-bit data elements, each of which represents a separate 16-bit value. This type of data may be referred to as ‘packed’ data type or ‘vector’ data type, and operands of this data type may be referred to as packed data operands or vector operands. In one embodiment, a packed data item or vector may be a sequence of packed data elements stored within a single register, and a packed data operand or a vector operand may a source or destination operand of a SIMD instruction (or ‘packed data instruction’ or a ‘vector instruction’). In one embodiment, a SIMD instruction specifies a single vector operation to be performed on two source vector operands to generate a destination vector operand (also referred to as a result vector operand) of the same or different size, with the same or different number of data elements, and in the same or different data element order.

SIMD technology, such as that employed by the Intel® Core™ processors having an instruction set including x86, MMX™, Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, and SSE4.2 instructions, ARM processors, such as the ARM Cortex® family of processors having an instruction set including the Vector Floating Point (VFP) and/or NEON instructions, and MIPS processors, such as the Loongson family of processors developed by the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has enabled a significant improvement in application performance (Core™ and MMX™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.).

In one embodiment, destination and source registers/data may be generic terms to represent the source and destination of the corresponding data or operation. In some embodiments, they may be implemented by registers, memory, or other storage areas having other names or functions than those depicted. For example, in one embodiment, “DEST1” may be a temporary storage register or other storage area, whereas “SRC1” and “SRC2” may be a first and second source storage register or other storage area, and so forth. In other embodiments, two or more of the SRC and DEST storage areas may correspond to different data storage elements within the same storage area (e.g., a SIMD register). In one embodiment, one of the source registers may also act as a destination register by, for example, writing back the result of an operation performed on the first and second source data to one of the two source registers serving as a destination registers.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system formed with a processor that may include execution units to execute an instruction, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. System 100 may include a component, such as a processor 102 to employ execution units including logic to perform algorithms for process data, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as in the embodiment described herein. System 100 may be representative of processing systems based on the PENTIUM® III, PENTIUM® 4, Xeon™, Itanium®, XScale™ and/or StrongARM™ microprocessors available from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., although other systems (including PCs having other microprocessors, engineering workstations, set-top boxes and the like) may also be used. In one embodiment, sample system 100 may execute a version of the WINDOWS™ operating system available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., although other operating systems (UNIX and Linux for example), embedded software, and/or graphical user interfaces, may also be used. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

Embodiments are not limited to computer systems. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be used in other devices such as handheld devices and embedded applications. Some examples of handheld devices include cellular phones, Internet Protocol devices, digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and handheld PCs. Embedded applications may include a micro controller, a digital signal processor (DSP), system on a chip, network computers (NetPC), set-top boxes, network hubs, wide area network (WAN) switches, or any other system that may perform one or more instructions in accordance with at least one embodiment.

Computer system 100 may include a processor 102 that may include one or more execution units 108 to perform an algorithm to perform at least one instruction in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. One embodiment may be described in the context of a single processor desktop or server system, but other embodiments may be included in a multiprocessor system. System 100 may be an example of a ‘hub’ system architecture. System 100 may include a processor 102 for processing data signals. Processor 102 may include a complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, a processor implementing a combination of instruction sets, or any other processor device, such as a digital signal processor, for example. In one embodiment, processor 102 may be coupled to a processor bus 110 that may transmit data signals between processor 102 and other components in system 100. The elements of system 100 may perform conventional functions that are well known to those familiar with the art.

In one embodiment, processor 102 may include a Level 1 (L1) internal cache memory 104. Depending on the architecture, the processor 102 may have a single internal cache or multiple levels of internal cache. In another embodiment, the cache memory may reside external to processor 102. Other embodiments may also include a combination of both internal and external caches depending on the particular implementation and needs. Register file 106 may store different types of data in various registers including integer registers, floating point registers, status registers, and instruction pointer register.

Execution unit 108, including logic to perform integer and floating point operations, also resides in processor 102. Processor 102 may also include a microcode (ucode) ROM that stores microcode for certain macroinstructions. In one embodiment, execution unit 108 may include logic to handle a packed instruction set 109. By including the packed instruction set 109 in the instruction set of a general-purpose processor 102, along with associated circuitry to execute the instructions, the operations used by many multimedia applications may be performed using packed data in a general-purpose processor 102. Thus, many multimedia applications may be accelerated and executed more efficiently by using the full width of a processor's data bus for performing operations on packed data. This may eliminate the need to transfer smaller units of data across the processor's data bus to perform one or more operations one data element at a time.

Embodiments of an execution unit 108 may also be used in micro controllers, embedded processors, graphics devices, DSPs, and other types of logic circuits. System 100 may include a memory 120. Memory 120 may be implemented as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, flash memory device, or other memory device. Memory 120 may store instructions and/or data represented by data signals that may be executed by processor 102.

A system logic chip 116 may be coupled to processor bus 110 and memory 120. System logic chip 116 may include a memory controller hub (MCH). Processor 102 may communicate with MCH 116 via a processor bus 110. MCH 116 may provide a high bandwidth memory path 118 to memory 120 for instruction and data storage and for storage of graphics commands, data and textures. MCH 116 may direct data signals between processor 102, memory 120, and other components in system 100 and to bridge the data signals between processor bus 110, memory 120, and system I/O 122. In some embodiments, the system logic chip 116 may provide a graphics port for coupling to a graphics controller 112. MCH 116 may be coupled to memory 120 through a memory interface 118. Graphics card 112 may be coupled to MCH 116 through an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) interconnect 114.

System 100 may use a proprietary hub interface bus 122 to couple MCH 116 to I/O controller hub (ICH) 130. In one embodiment, ICH 130 may provide direct connections to some I/O devices via a local I/O bus. The local I/O bus may include a high-speed I/O bus for connecting peripherals to memory 120, chipset, and processor 102. Examples may include the audio controller, firmware hub (flash BIOS) 128, wireless transceiver 126, data storage 124, legacy I/O controller containing user input and keyboard interfaces, a serial expansion port such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), and a network controller 134. Data storage device 124 may comprise a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM device, a flash memory device, or other mass storage device.

For another embodiment of a system, an instruction in accordance with one embodiment may be used with a system on a chip. One embodiment of a system on a chip comprises of a processor and a memory. The memory for one such system may include a flash memory. The flash memory may be located on the same die as the processor and other system components. Additionally, other logic blocks such as a memory controller or graphics controller may also be located on a system on a chip.

FIG. 1B illustrates a data processing system 140 which implements the principles of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be readily appreciated by one of skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may operate with alternative processing systems without departure from the scope of embodiments of the disclosure.

Computer system 140 comprises a processing core 159 for performing at least one instruction in accordance with one embodiment. In one embodiment, processing core 159 represents a processing unit of any type of architecture, including but not limited to a CISC, a RISC or a VLIW type architecture. Processing core 159 may also be suitable for manufacture in one or more process technologies and by being represented on a machine-readable media in sufficient detail, may be suitable to facilitate said manufacture.

Processing core 159 comprises an execution unit 142, a set of register files 145, and a decoder 144. Processing core 159 may also include additional circuitry (not shown) which may be unnecessary to the understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. Execution unit 142 may execute instructions received by processing core 159. In addition to performing typical processor instructions, execution unit 142 may perform instructions in packed instruction set 143 for performing operations on packed data formats. Packed instruction set 143 may include instructions for performing embodiments of the disclosure and other packed instructions. Execution unit 142 may be coupled to register file 145 by an internal bus. Register file 145 may represent a storage area on processing core 159 for storing information, including data. As previously mentioned, it is understood that the storage area may store the packed data might not be critical. Execution unit 142 may be coupled to decoder 144. Decoder 144 may decode instructions received by processing core 159 into control signals and/or microcode entry points. In response to these control signals and/or microcode entry points, execution unit 142 performs the appropriate operations. In one embodiment, the decoder may interpret the opcode of the instruction, which will indicate what operation should be performed on the corresponding data indicated within the instruction.

Processing core 159 may be coupled with bus 141 for communicating with various other system devices, which may include but are not limited to, for example, synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) control 146, static random access memory (SRAM) control 147, burst flash memory interface 148, personal computer memory card international association (PCMCIA)/compact flash (CF) card control 149, liquid crystal display (LCD) control 150, direct memory access (DMA) controller 151, and alternative bus master interface 152. In one embodiment, data processing system 140 may also comprise an I/O bridge 154 for communicating with various I/O devices via an I/O bus 153. Such I/O devices may include but are not limited to, for example, universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) 155, universal serial bus (USB) 156, Bluetooth wireless UART 157 and I/O expansion interface 158.

One embodiment of data processing system 140 provides for mobile, network and/or wireless communications and a processing core 159 that may perform SIMD operations including a text string comparison operation. Processing core 159 may be programmed with various audio, video, imaging and communications algorithms including discrete transformations such as a Walsh-Hadamard transform, a fast Fourier transform (FFT), a discrete cosine transform (DCT), and their respective inverse transforms; compression/decompression techniques such as color space transformation, video encode motion estimation or video decode motion compensation; and modulation/demodulation (MODEM) functions such as pulse coded modulation (PCM).

FIG. 1C illustrates other embodiments of a data processing system that performs SIMD text string comparison operations. In one embodiment, data processing system 160 may include a main processor 166, a SIMD coprocessor 161, a cache memory 167, and an input/output system 168. Input/output system 168 may optionally be coupled to a wireless interface 169. SIMD coprocessor 161 may perform operations including instructions in accordance with one embodiment. In one embodiment, processing core 170 may be suitable for manufacture in one or more process technologies and by being represented on a machine-readable media in sufficient detail, may be suitable to facilitate the manufacture of all or part of data processing system 160 including processing core 170.

In one embodiment, SIMD coprocessor 161 comprises an execution unit 162 and a set of register files 164. One embodiment of main processor 165 comprises a decoder 165 to recognize instructions of instruction set 163 including instructions in accordance with one embodiment for execution by execution unit 162. In other embodiments, SIMD coprocessor 161 also comprises at least part of decoder 165 to decode instructions of instruction set 163. Processing core 170 may also include additional circuitry (not shown) which may be unnecessary to the understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.

In operation, main processor 166 executes a stream of data processing instructions that control data processing operations of a general type including interactions with cache memory 167, and input/output system 168. Embedded within the stream of data processing instructions may be SIMD coprocessor instructions. Decoder 165 of main processor 166 recognizes these SIMD coprocessor instructions as being of a type that should be executed by an attached SIMD coprocessor 161. Accordingly, main processor 166 issues these SIMD coprocessor instructions (or control signals representing SIMD coprocessor instructions) on the coprocessor bus 166. From coprocessor bus 166, these instructions may be received by any attached SIMD coprocessors. In this case, SIMD coprocessor 161 may accept and execute any received SIMD coprocessor instructions intended for it.

Data may be received via wireless interface 169 for processing by the SIMD coprocessor instructions. For one example, voice communication may be received in the form of a digital signal, which may be processed by the SIMD coprocessor instructions to regenerate digital audio samples representative of the voice communications. For another example, compressed audio and/or video may be received in the form of a digital bit stream, which may be processed by the SIMD coprocessor instructions to regenerate digital audio samples and/or motion video frames. In one embodiment of processing core 170, main processor 166, and a SIMD coprocessor 161 may be integrated into a single processing core 170 comprising an execution unit 162, a set of register files 164, and a decoder 165 to recognize instructions of instruction set 163 including instructions in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the micro-architecture for a processor 200 that may include logic circuits to perform instructions, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, an instruction in accordance with one embodiment may be implemented to operate on data elements having sizes of byte, word, doubleword, quadword, etc., as well as datatypes, such as single and double precision integer and floating point datatypes. In one embodiment, in-order front end 201 may implement a part of processor 200 that may fetch instructions to be executed and prepares the instructions to be used later in the processor pipeline. Front end 201 may include several units. In one embodiment, instruction prefetcher 226 fetches instructions from memory and feeds the instructions to an instruction decoder 228 which in turn decodes or interprets the instructions. For example, in one embodiment, the decoder decodes a received instruction into one or more operations called “micro-instructions” or “micro-operations” (also called micro op or uops) that the machine may execute. In other embodiments, the decoder parses the instruction into an opcode and corresponding data and control fields that may be used by the micro-architecture to perform operations in accordance with one embodiment. In one embodiment, trace cache 230 may assemble decoded uops into program ordered sequences or traces in uop queue 234 for execution. When trace cache 230 encounters a complex instruction, microcode ROM 232 provides the uops needed to complete the operation.

Some instructions may be converted into a single micro-op, whereas others need several micro-ops to complete the full operation. In one embodiment, if more than four micro-ops are needed to complete an instruction, decoder 228 may access microcode ROM 232 to perform the instruction. In one embodiment, an instruction may be decoded into a small number of micro ops for processing at instruction decoder 228. In another embodiment, an instruction may be stored within microcode ROM 232 should a number of micro-ops be needed to accomplish the operation. Trace cache 230 refers to an entry point programmable logic array (PLA) to determine a correct micro-instruction pointer for reading the micro-code sequences to complete one or more instructions in accordance with one embodiment from micro-code ROM 232. After microcode ROM 232 finishes sequencing micro-ops for an instruction, front end 201 of the machine may resume fetching micro-ops from trace cache 230.

Out-of-order execution engine 203 may prepare instructions for execution. The out-of-order execution logic has a number of buffers to smooth out and re-order the flow of instructions to optimize performance as they go down the pipeline and get scheduled for execution. The allocator logic allocates the machine buffers and resources that each uop needs in order to execute. The register renaming logic renames logic registers onto entries in a register file. The allocator also allocates an entry for each uop in one of the two uop queues, one for memory operations and one for non-memory operations, in front of the instruction schedulers: memory scheduler, fast scheduler 202, slow/general floating point scheduler 204, and simple floating point scheduler 206. Uop schedulers 202, 204, 206, determine when a uop is ready to execute based on the readiness of their dependent input register operand sources and the availability of the execution resources the uops need to complete their operation. Fast scheduler 202 of one embodiment may schedule on each half of the main clock cycle while the other schedulers may only schedule once per main processor clock cycle. The schedulers arbitrate for the dispatch ports to schedule uops for execution.

Register files 208, 210 may be arranged between schedulers 202, 204, 206, and execution units 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224 in execution block 211. Each of register files 208, 210 perform integer and floating point operations, respectively. Each register file 208, 210, may include a bypass network that may bypass or forward just completed results that have not yet been written into the register file to new dependent uops. Integer register file 208 and floating point register file 210 may communicate data with the other. In one embodiment, integer register file 208 may be split into two separate register files, one register file for low-order thirty-two bits of data and a second register file for high order thirty-two bits of data. Floating point register file 210 may include 128-bit wide entries because floating point instructions typically have operands from 64 to 128 bits in width.

Execution block 211 may contain execution units 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224. Execution units 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224 may execute the instructions. Execution block 211 may include register files 208, 210 that store the integer and floating point data operand values that the micro-instructions need to execute. In one embodiment, processor 200 may comprise a number of execution units: address generation unit (AGU) 212, AGU 214, fast ALU 216, fast ALU 218, slow ALU 220, floating point ALU 222, floating point move unit 224. In another embodiment, floating point execution blocks 222, 224, may execute floating point, MMX, SIMD, and SSE, or other operations. In yet another embodiment, floating point ALU 222 may include a 64-bit by 64-bit floating point divider to execute divide, square root, and remainder micro-ops. In various embodiments, instructions involving a floating point value may be handled with the floating point hardware. In one embodiment, ALU operations may be passed to high-speed ALU execution units 216, 218. High-speed ALUs 216, 218 may execute fast operations with an effective latency of half a clock cycle. In one embodiment, most complex integer operations go to slow ALU 220 as slow ALU 220 may include integer execution hardware for long-latency type of operations, such as a multiplier, shifts, flag logic, and branch processing. Memory load/store operations may be executed by AGUs 212, 214. In one embodiment, integer ALUs 216, 218, 220 may perform integer operations on 64-bit data operands. In other embodiments, ALUs 216, 218, 220 may be implemented to support a variety of data bit sizes including sixteen, thirty-two, 128, 256, etc. Similarly, floating point units 222, 224 may be implemented to support a range of operands having bits of various widths. In one embodiment, floating point units 222, 224, may operate on 128-bit wide packed data operands in conjunction with SIMD and multimedia instructions.

In one embodiment, uops schedulers 202, 204, 206, dispatch dependent operations before the parent load has finished executing. As uops may be speculatively scheduled and executed in processor 200, processor 200 may also include logic to handle memory misses. If a data load misses in the data cache, there may be dependent operations in flight in the pipeline that have left the scheduler with temporarily incorrect data. A replay mechanism tracks and re-executes instructions that use incorrect data. Only the dependent operations might need to be replayed and the independent ones may be allowed to complete. The schedulers and replay mechanism of one embodiment of a processor may also be designed to catch instruction sequences for text string comparison operations.

The term “registers” may refer to the on-board processor storage locations that may be used as part of instructions to identify operands. In other words, registers may be those that may be usable from the outside of the processor (from a programmer's perspective). However, in some embodiments registers might not be limited to a particular type of circuit. Rather, a register may store data, provide data, and perform the functions described herein. The registers described herein may be implemented by circuitry within a processor using any number of different techniques, such as dedicated physical registers, dynamically allocated physical registers using register renaming, combinations of dedicated and dynamically allocated physical registers, etc. In one embodiment, integer registers store 32-bit integer data. A register file of one embodiment also contains eight multimedia SIMD registers for packed data. For the discussions below, the registers may be understood to be data registers designed to hold packed data, such as 64-bit wide MMX™ registers (also referred to as ‘mm’ registers in some instances) in microprocessors enabled with MMX technology from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. These MMX registers, available in both integer and floating point forms, may operate with packed data elements that accompany SIMD and SSE instructions. Similarly, 128-bit wide XMM registers relating to SSE2, SSE3, SSE4, or beyond (referred to generically as “SSEx”) technology may hold such packed data operands. In one embodiment, in storing packed data and integer data, the registers do not need to differentiate between the two data types. In one embodiment, integer and floating point may be contained in the same register file or different register files. Furthermore, in one embodiment, floating point and integer data may be stored in different registers or the same registers.

In the examples of the following figures, a number of data operands may be described. FIG. 3A illustrates various packed data type representations in multimedia registers, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3A illustrates data types for a packed byte 310, a packed word 320, and a packed doubleword (dword) 330 for 128-bit wide operands. Packed byte format 310 of this example may be 128 bits long and contains sixteen packed byte data elements. A byte may be defined, for example, as eight bits of data. Information for each byte data element may be stored in bit 7 through bit 0 for byte 0, bit 15 through bit 8 for byte 1, bit 23 through bit 16 for byte 2, and finally bit 120 through bit 127 for byte 15. Thus, all available bits may be used in the register. This storage arrangement increases the storage efficiency of the processor. As well, with sixteen data elements accessed, one operation may now be performed on sixteen data elements in parallel.

Generally, a data element may include an individual piece of data that is stored in a single register or memory location with other data elements of the same length. In packed data sequences relating to SSEx technology, the number of data elements stored in a XMM register may be 128 bits divided by the length in bits of an individual data element. Similarly, in packed data sequences relating to MMX and SSE technology, the number of data elements stored in an MMX register may be 64 bits divided by the length in bits of an individual data element. Although the data types illustrated in FIG. 3A may be 128 bits long, embodiments of the present disclosure may also operate with 64-bit wide or other sized operands. Packed word format 320 of this example may be 128 bits long and contains eight packed word data elements. Each packed word contains sixteen bits of information. Packed doubleword format 330 of FIG. 3A may be 128 bits long and contains four packed doubleword data elements. Each packed doubleword data element contains thirty-two bits of information. A packed quadword may be 128 bits long and contain two packed quad-word data elements.

FIG. 3B illustrates possible in-register data storage formats, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Each packed data may include more than one independent data element. Three packed data formats are illustrated; packed half 341, packed single 342, and packed double 343. One embodiment of packed half 341, packed single 342, and packed double 343 contain fixed-point data elements. For another embodiment one or more of packed half 341, packed single 342, and packed double 343 may contain floating-point data elements. One embodiment of packed half 341 may be 128 bits long containing eight 16-bit data elements. One embodiment of packed single 342 may be 128 bits long and contains four 32-bit data elements. One embodiment of packed double 343 may be 128 bits long and contains two 64-bit data elements. It will be appreciated that such packed data formats may be further extended to other register lengths, for example, to 96-bits, 160-bits, 192-bits, 224-bits, 256-bits or more.

FIG. 3C illustrates various signed and unsigned packed data type representations in multimedia registers, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Unsigned packed byte representation 344 illustrates the storage of an unsigned packed byte in a SIMD register. Information for each byte data element may be stored in bit 7 through bit 0 for byte 0, bit 15 through bit 8 for byte 1, bit 23 through bit 16 for byte 2, and finally bit 120 through bit 127 for byte 15. Thus, all available bits may be used in the register. This storage arrangement may increase the storage efficiency of the processor. As well, with sixteen data elements accessed, one operation may now be performed on sixteen data elements in a parallel fashion. Signed packed byte representation 345 illustrates the storage of a signed packed byte. Note that the eighth bit of every byte data element may be the sign indicator. Unsigned packed word representation 346 illustrates how word seven through word zero may be stored in a SIMD register. Signed packed word representation 347 may be similar to the unsigned packed word in-register representation 346. Note that the sixteenth bit of each word data element may be the sign indicator. Unsigned packed doubleword representation 348 shows how doubleword data elements are stored. Signed packed doubleword representation 349 may be similar to unsigned packed doubleword in-register representation 348. Note that the necessary sign bit may be the thirty-second bit of each doubleword data element.

FIG. 3D illustrates an embodiment of an operation encoding (opcode). Furthermore, format 360 may include register/memory operand addressing modes corresponding with a type of opcode format described in the “IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference,” which is available from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. on the world-wide-web (www) at intel.com/design/litcentr. In one embodiment, and instruction may be encoded by one or more of fields 361 and 362. Up to two operand locations per instruction may be identified, including up to two source operand identifiers 364 and 365. In one embodiment, destination operand identifier 366 may be the same as source operand identifier 364, whereas in other embodiments they may be different. In another embodiment, destination operand identifier 366 may be the same as source operand identifier 365, whereas in other embodiments they may be different. In one embodiment, one of the source operands identified by source operand identifiers 364 and 365 may be overwritten by the results of the text string comparison operations, whereas in other embodiments identifier 364 corresponds to a source register element and identifier 365 corresponds to a destination register element. In one embodiment, operand identifiers 364 and 365 may identify 32-bit or 64-bit source and destination operands.

FIG. 3E illustrates another possible operation encoding (opcode) format 370, having forty or more bits, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Opcode format 370 corresponds with opcode format 360 and comprises an optional prefix byte 378. An instruction according to one embodiment may be encoded by one or more of fields 378, 371, and 372. Up to two operand locations per instruction may be identified by source operand identifiers 374 and 375 and by prefix byte 378. In one embodiment, prefix byte 378 may be used to identify 32-bit or 64-bit source and destination operands. In one embodiment, destination operand identifier 376 may be the same as source operand identifier 374, whereas in other embodiments they may be different. For another embodiment, destination operand identifier 376 may be the same as source operand identifier 375, whereas in other embodiments they may be different. In one embodiment, an instruction operates on one or more of the operands identified by operand identifiers 374 and 375 and one or more operands identified by operand identifiers 374 and 375 may be overwritten by the results of the instruction, whereas in other embodiments, operands identified by identifiers 374 and 375 may be written to another data element in another register. Opcode formats 360 and 370 allow register to register, memory to register, register by memory, register by register, register by immediate, register to memory addressing specified in part by MOD fields 363 and 373 and by optional scale-index-base and displacement bytes.

FIG. 3F illustrates yet another possible operation encoding (opcode) format, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 64-bit single instruction multiple data (SIMD) arithmetic operations may be performed through a coprocessor data processing (CDP) instruction. Operation encoding (opcode) format 380 depicts one such CDP instruction having CDP opcode fields 382 an0064 389. The type of CDP instruction, for another embodiment, operations may be encoded by one or more of fields 383, 384, 387, and 388. Up to three operand locations per instruction may be identified, including up to two source operand identifiers 385 and 390 and one destination operand identifier 386. One embodiment of the coprocessor may operate on eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and 64-bit values. In one embodiment, an instruction may be performed on integer data elements. In some embodiments, an instruction may be executed conditionally, using condition field 381. For some embodiments, source data sizes may be encoded by field 383. In some embodiments, Zero (Z), negative (N), carry (C), and overflow (V) detection may be done on SIMD fields. For some instructions, the type of saturation may be encoded by field 384.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an in-order pipeline and a register renaming stage, out-of-order issue/execution pipeline, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an in-order architecture core and a register renaming logic, out-of-order issue/execution logic to be included in a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The solid lined boxes in FIG. 4A illustrate the in-order pipeline, while the dashed lined boxes illustrates the register renaming, out-of-order issue/execution pipeline. Similarly, the solid lined boxes in FIG. 4B illustrate the in-order architecture logic, while the dashed lined boxes illustrates the register renaming logic and out-of-order issue/execution logic.

In FIG. 4A, a processor pipeline 400 may include a fetch stage 402, a length decode stage 404, a decode stage 406, an allocation stage 408, a renaming stage 410, a scheduling (also known as a dispatch or issue) stage 412, a register read/memory read stage 414, an execute stage 416, a write-back/memory-write stage 418, an exception handling stage 422, and a commit stage 424.

In FIG. 4B, arrows denote a coupling between two or more units and the direction of the arrow indicates a direction of data flow between those units. FIG. 4B shows processor core 490 including a front end unit 430 coupled to an execution engine unit 450, and both may be coupled to a memory unit 470.

Core 490 may be a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) core, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) core, a very long instruction word (VLIW) core, or a hybrid or alternative core type. In one embodiment, core 490 may be a special-purpose core, such as, for example, a network or communication core, compression engine, graphics core, or the like.

Front end unit 430 may include a branch prediction unit 432 coupled to an instruction cache unit 434. Instruction cache unit 434 may be coupled to an instruction translation lookaside buffer (TLB) 436. TLB 436 may be coupled to an instruction fetch unit 438, which is coupled to a decode unit 440. Decode unit 440 may decode instructions, and generate as an output one or more micro-operations, micro-code entry points, microinstructions, other instructions, or other control signals, which may be decoded from, or which otherwise reflect, or may be derived from, the original instructions. The decoder may be implemented using various different mechanisms. Examples of suitable mechanisms include, but are not limited to, look-up tables, hardware implementations, programmable logic arrays (PLAs), microcode read-only memories (ROMs), etc. In one embodiment, instruction cache unit 434 may be further coupled to a level 2 (L2) cache unit 476 in memory unit 470. Decode unit 440 may be coupled to a rename/allocator unit 452 in execution engine unit 450.

Execution engine unit 450 may include rename/allocator unit 452 coupled to a retirement unit 454 and a set of one or more scheduler units 456. Scheduler units 456 represent any number of different schedulers, including reservations stations, central instruction window, etc. Scheduler units 456 may be coupled to physical register file units 458. Each of physical register file units 458 represents one or more physical register files, different ones of which store one or more different data types, such as scalar integer, scalar floating point, packed integer, packed floating point, vector integer, vector floating point, etc., status (e.g., an instruction pointer that is the address of the next instruction to be executed), etc. Physical register file units 458 may be overlapped by retirement unit 154 to illustrate various ways in which register renaming and out-of-order execution may be implemented (e.g., using one or more reorder buffers and one or more retirement register files, using one or more future files, one or more history buffers, and one or more retirement register files; using register maps and a pool of registers; etc.). Generally, the architectural registers may be visible from the outside of the processor or from a programmer's perspective. The registers might not be limited to any known particular type of circuit. Various different types of registers may be suitable as long as they store and provide data as described herein. Examples of suitable registers include, but might not be limited to, dedicated physical registers, dynamically allocated physical registers using register renaming, combinations of dedicated and dynamically allocated physical registers, etc. Retirement unit 454 and physical register file units 458 may be coupled to execution clusters 460. Execution clusters 460 may include a set of one or more execution units 162 and a set of one or more memory access units 464. Execution units 462 may perform various operations (e.g., shifts, addition, subtraction, multiplication) and on various types of data (e.g., scalar floating point, packed integer, packed floating point, vector integer, vector floating point). While some embodiments may include a number of execution units dedicated to specific functions or sets of functions, other embodiments may include only one execution unit or multiple execution units that all perform all functions. Scheduler units 456, physical register file units 458, and execution clusters 460 are shown as being possibly plural because certain embodiments create separate pipelines for certain types of data/operations (e.g., a scalar integer pipeline, a scalar floating point/packed integer/packed floating point/vector integer/vector floating point pipeline, and/or a memory access pipeline that each have their own scheduler unit, physical register file unit, and/or execution cluster—and in the case of a separate memory access pipeline, certain embodiments may be implemented in which only the execution cluster of this pipeline has memory access units 464). It should also be understood that where separate pipelines are used, one or more of these pipelines may be out-of-order issue/execution and the rest in-order.

The set of memory access units 464 may be coupled to memory unit 470, which may include a data TLB unit 472 coupled to a data cache unit 474 coupled to a level 2 (L2) cache unit 476. In one exemplary embodiment, memory access units 464 may include a load unit, a store address unit, and a store data unit, each of which may be coupled to data TLB unit 472 in memory unit 470. L2 cache unit 476 may be coupled to one or more other levels of cache and eventually to a main memory.

By way of example, the exemplary register renaming, out-of-order issue/execution core architecture may implement pipeline 400 as follows: 1) instruction fetch 438 may perform fetch and length decoding stages 402 and 404; 2) decode unit 440 may perform decode stage 406; 3) rename/allocator unit 452 may perform allocation stage 408 and renaming stage 410; 4) scheduler units 456 may perform schedule stage 412; 5) physical register file units 458 and memory unit 470 may perform register read/memory read stage 414; execution cluster 460 may perform execute stage 416; 6) memory unit 470 and physical register file units 458 may perform write-back/memory-write stage 418; 7) various units may be involved in the performance of exception handling stage 422; and 8) retirement unit 454 and physical register file units 458 may perform commit stage 424.

Core 490 may support one or more instructions sets (e.g., the x86 instruction set (with some extensions that have been added with newer versions); the MIPS instruction set of MIPS Technologies of Sunnyvale, Calif.; the ARM instruction set (with optional additional extensions such as NEON) of ARM Holdings of Sunnyvale, Calif.).

It should be understood that the core may support multithreading (executing two or more parallel sets of operations or threads) in a variety of manners. Multithreading support may be performed by, for example, including time sliced multithreading, simultaneous multithreading (where a single physical core provides a logical core for each of the threads that physical core is simultaneously multithreading), or a combination thereof. Such a combination may include, for example, time sliced fetching and decoding and simultaneous multithreading thereafter such as in the Intel® Hyperthreading technology.

While register renaming may be described in the context of out-of-order execution, it should be understood that register renaming may be used in an in-order architecture. While the illustrated embodiment of the processor may also include a separate instruction and data cache units 434/474 and a shared L2 cache unit 476, other embodiments may have a single internal cache for both instructions and data, such as, for example, a Level 1 (L1) internal cache, or multiple levels of internal cache. In some embodiments, the system may include a combination of an internal cache and an external cache that may be external to the core and/or the processor. In other embodiments, all of the cache may be external to the core and/or the processor.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a processor 500, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, processor 500 may include a multicore processor. Processor 500 may include a system agent 510 communicatively coupled to one or more cores 502. Furthermore, cores 502 and system agent 510 may be communicatively coupled to one or more caches 506. Cores 502, system agent 510, and caches 506 may be communicatively coupled via one or more memory control units 552. Furthermore, cores 502, system agent 510, and caches 506 may be communicatively coupled to a graphics module 560 via memory control units 552.

Processor 500 may include any suitable mechanism for interconnecting cores 502, system agent 510, and caches 506, and graphics module 560. In one embodiment, processor 500 may include a ring-based interconnect unit 508 to interconnect cores 502, system agent 510, and caches 506, and graphics module 560. In other embodiments, processor 500 may include any number of well-known techniques for interconnecting such units. Ring-based interconnect unit 508 may utilize memory control units 552 to facilitate interconnections.

Processor 500 may include a memory hierarchy comprising one or more levels of caches within the cores, one or more shared cache units such as caches 506, or external memory (not shown) coupled to the set of integrated memory controller units 552. Caches 506 may include any suitable cache. In one embodiment, caches 506 may include one or more mid-level caches, such as level 2 (L2), level 3 (L3), level 4 (L4), or other levels of cache, a last level cache (LLC), and/or combinations thereof.

In various embodiments, one or more of cores 502 may perform multi-threading. System agent 510 may include components for coordinating and operating cores 502. System agent unit 510 may include for example a power control unit (PCU). The PCU may be or include logic and components needed for regulating the power state of cores 502. System agent 510 may include a display engine 512 for driving one or more externally connected displays or graphics module 560. System agent 510 may include an interface 1214 for communications busses for graphics. In one embodiment, interface 1214 may be implemented by PCI Express (PCIe). In a further embodiment, interface 1214 may be implemented by PCI Express Graphics (PEG). System agent 510 may include a direct media interface (DMI) 516. DMI 516 may provide links between different bridges on a motherboard or other portion of a computer system. System agent 510 may include a PCIe bridge 1218 for providing PCIe links to other elements of a computing system. PCIe bridge 1218 may be implemented using a memory controller 1220 and coherence logic 1222.

Cores 502 may be implemented in any suitable manner. Cores 502 may be homogenous or heterogeneous in terms of architecture and/or instruction set. In one embodiment, some of cores 502 may be in-order while others may be out-of-order. In another embodiment, two or more of cores 502 may execute the same instruction set, while others may execute only a subset of that instruction set or a different instruction set.

Processor 500 may include a general-purpose processor, such as a Core™ i3, i5, i7, 2 Duo and Quad, Xeon™, Itanium™, XScale™ or StrongARM™ processor, which may be available from Intel Corporation, of Santa Clara, Calif. Processor 500 may be provided from another company, such as ARM Holdings, Ltd, MIPS, etc. Processor 500 may be a special-purpose processor, such as, for example, a network or communication processor, compression engine, graphics processor, co-processor, embedded processor, or the like. Processor 500 may be implemented on one or more chips. Processor 500 may be a part of and/or may be implemented on one or more substrates using any of a number of process technologies, such as, for example, BiCMOS, CMOS, or NMOS.

In one embodiment, a given one of caches 506 may be shared by multiple ones of cores 502. In another embodiment, a given one of caches 506 may be dedicated to one of cores 502. The assignment of caches 506 to cores 502 may be handled by a cache controller or other suitable mechanism. A given one of caches 506 may be shared by two or more cores 502 by implementing time-slices of a given cache 506.

Graphics module 560 may implement an integrated graphics processing subsystem. In one embodiment, graphics module 560 may include a graphics processor. Furthermore, graphics module 560 may include a media engine 565. Media engine 565 may provide media encoding and video decoding.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram of an example implementation of a core 502, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Core 502 may include a front end 570 communicatively coupled to an out-of-order engine 580. Core 502 may be communicatively coupled to other portions of processor 500 through cache hierarchy 503.

Front end 570 may be implemented in any suitable manner, such as fully or in part by front end 201 as described above. In one embodiment, front end 570 may communicate with other portions of processor 500 through cache hierarchy 503. In a further embodiment, front end 570 may fetch instructions from portions of processor 500 and prepare the instructions to be used later in the processor pipeline as they are passed to out-of-order execution engine 580.

Out-of-order execution engine 580 may be implemented in any suitable manner, such as fully or in part by out-of-order execution engine 203 as described above. Out-of-order execution engine 580 may prepare instructions received from front end 570 for execution. Out-of-order execution engine 580 may include an allocate module 1282. In one embodiment, allocate module 1282 may allocate resources of processor 500 or other resources, such as registers or buffers, to execute a given instruction. Allocate module 1282 may make allocations in schedulers, such as a memory scheduler, fast scheduler, or floating point scheduler. Such schedulers may be represented in FIG. 5B by resource schedulers 584. Allocate module 1282 may be implemented fully or in part by the allocation logic described in conjunction with FIG. 2. Resource schedulers 584 may determine when an instruction is ready to execute based on the readiness of a given resource's sources and the availability of execution resources needed to execute an instruction. Resource schedulers 584 may be implemented by, for example, schedulers 202, 204, 206 as discussed above. Resource schedulers 584 may schedule the execution of instructions upon one or more resources. In one embodiment, such resources may be internal to core 502, and may be illustrated, for example, as resources 586. In another embodiment, such resources may be external to core 502 and may be accessible by, for example, cache hierarchy 503. Resources may include, for example, memory, caches, register files, or registers. Resources internal to core 502 may be represented by resources 586 in FIG. 5B. As necessary, values written to or read from resources 586 may be coordinated with other portions of processor 500 through, for example, cache hierarchy 503. As instructions are assigned resources, they may be placed into a reorder buffer 588. Reorder buffer 588 may track instructions as they are executed and may selectively reorder their execution based upon any suitable criteria of processor 500. In one embodiment, reorder buffer 588 may identify instructions or a series of instructions that may be executed independently. Such instructions or a series of instructions may be executed in parallel from other such instructions. Parallel execution in core 502 may be performed by any suitable number of separate execution blocks or virtual processors. In one embodiment, shared resources—such as memory, registers, and caches—may be accessible to multiple virtual processors within a given core 502. In other embodiments, shared resources may be accessible to multiple processing entities within processor 500.

Cache hierarchy 503 may be implemented in any suitable manner. For example, cache hierarchy 503 may include one or more lower or mid-level caches, such as caches 572, 574. In one embodiment, cache hierarchy 503 may include an LLC 595 communicatively coupled to caches 572, 574. In another embodiment, LLC 595 may be implemented in a module 590 accessible to all processing entities of processor 500. In a further embodiment, module 590 may be implemented in an uncore module of processors from Intel, Inc. Module 590 may include portions or subsystems of processor 500 necessary for the execution of core 502 but might not be implemented within core 502. Besides LLC 595, Module 590 may include, for example, hardware interfaces, memory coherency coordinators, interprocessor interconnects, instruction pipelines, or memory controllers. Access to RAM 599 available to processor 500 may be made through module 590 and, more specifically, LLC 595. Furthermore, other instances of core 502 may similarly access module 590. Coordination of the instances of core 502 may be facilitated in part through module 590.

FIGS. 6-8 may illustrate exemplary systems suitable for including processor 500, while FIG. 9 may illustrate an exemplary system on a chip (SoC) that may include one or more of cores 502. Other system designs and implementations known in the arts for laptops, desktops, handheld PCs, personal digital assistants, engineering workstations, servers, network devices, network hubs, switches, embedded processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics devices, video game devices, set-top boxes, micro controllers, cell phones, portable media players, hand held devices, and various other electronic devices, may also be suitable. In general, a huge variety of systems or electronic devices that incorporate a processor and/or other execution logic as disclosed herein may be generally suitable.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a system 600, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. System 600 may include one or more processors 610, 615, which may be coupled to graphics memory controller hub (GMCH) 620. The optional nature of additional processors 615 is denoted in FIG. 6 with broken lines.

Each processor 610,615 may be some version of processor 500. However, it should be noted that integrated graphics logic and integrated memory control units might not exist in processors 610,615. FIG. 6 illustrates that GMCH 620 may be coupled to a memory 640 that may be, for example, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The DRAM may, for at least one embodiment, be associated with a non-volatile cache.

GMCH 620 may be a chipset, or a portion of a chipset. GMCH 620 may communicate with processors 610, 615 and control interaction between processors 610, 615 and memory 640. GMCH 620 may also act as an accelerated bus interface between the processors 610, 615 and other elements of system 600. In one embodiment, GMCH 620 communicates with processors 610, 615 via a multi-drop bus, such as a frontside bus (FSB) 695.

Furthermore, GMCH 620 may be coupled to a display 645 (such as a flat panel display). In one embodiment, GMCH 620 may include an integrated graphics accelerator. GMCH 620 may be further coupled to an input/output (I/O) controller hub (ICH) 650, which may be used to couple various peripheral devices to system 600. External graphics device 660 may include be a discrete graphics device coupled to ICH 650 along with another peripheral device 670.

In other embodiments, additional or different processors may also be present in system 600. For example, additional processors 610, 615 may include additional processors that may be the same as processor 610, additional processors that may be heterogeneous or asymmetric to processor 610, accelerators (such as, e.g., graphics accelerators or digital signal processing (DSP) units), field programmable gate arrays, or any other processor. There may be a variety of differences between the physical resources 610, 615 in terms of a spectrum of metrics of merit including architectural, micro-architectural, thermal, power consumption characteristics, and the like. These differences may effectively manifest themselves as asymmetry and heterogeneity amongst processors 610, 615. For at least one embodiment, various processors 610, 615 may reside in the same die package.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a second system 700, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7, multiprocessor system 700 may include a point-to-point interconnect system, and may include a first processor 770 and a second processor 780 coupled via a point-to-point interconnect 750. Each of processors 770 and 780 may be some version of processor 500 as one or more of processors 610,615.

While FIG. 7 may illustrate two processors 770, 780, it is to be understood that the scope of the present disclosure is not so limited. In other embodiments, one or more additional processors may be present in a given processor.

Processors 770 and 780 are shown including integrated memory controller units 772 and 782, respectively. Processor 770 may also include as part of its bus controller units point-to-point (P-P) interfaces 776 and 778; similarly, second processor 780 may include P-P interfaces 786 and 788. Processors 770, 780 may exchange information via a point-to-point (P-P) interface 750 using P-P interface circuits 778, 788. As shown in FIG. 7, IMCs 772 and 782 may couple the processors to respective memories, namely a memory 732 and a memory 734, which in one embodiment may be portions of main memory locally attached to the respective processors.

Processors 770, 780 may each exchange information with a chipset 790 via individual P-P interfaces 752, 754 using point to point interface circuits 776, 794, 786, 798. In one embodiment, chipset 790 may also exchange information with a high-performance graphics circuit 738 via a high-performance graphics interface 739.

A shared cache (not shown) may be included in either processor or outside of both processors, yet connected with the processors via P-P interconnect, such that either or both processors' local cache information may be stored in the shared cache if a processor is placed into a low power mode.

Chipset 790 may be coupled to a first bus 716 via an interface 796. In one embodiment, first bus 716 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, or a bus such as a PCI Express bus or another third generation I/O interconnect bus, although the scope of the present disclosure is not so limited.

As shown in FIG. 7, various I/O devices 714 may be coupled to first bus 716, along with a bus bridge 718 which couples first bus 716 to a second bus 720. In one embodiment, second bus 720 may be a low pin count (LPC) bus. Various devices may be coupled to second bus 720 including, for example, a keyboard and/or mouse 722, communication devices 727 and a storage unit 728 such as a disk drive or other mass storage device which may include instructions/code and data 730, in one embodiment. Further, an audio I/O 724 may be coupled to second bus 720. Note that other architectures may be possible. For example, instead of the point-to-point architecture of FIG. 7, a system may implement a multi-drop bus or other such architecture.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a third system 800 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Like elements in FIGS. 7 and 8 bear like reference numerals, and certain aspects of FIG. 7 have been omitted from FIG. 8 in order to avoid obscuring other aspects of FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 illustrates that processors 870, 880 may include integrated memory and I/O control logic (“CL”) 872 and 882, respectively. For at least one embodiment, CL 872, 882 may include integrated memory controller units such as that described above in connection with FIGS. 5 and 7. In addition. CL 872, 882 may also include I/O control logic. FIG. 8 illustrates that not only memories 832, 834 may be coupled to CL 872, 882, but also that I/O devices 814 may also be coupled to control logic 872, 882. Legacy I/O devices 815 may be coupled to chipset 890.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a SoC 900, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Similar elements in FIG. 5 bear like reference numerals. Also, dashed lined boxes may represent optional features on more advanced SoCs. An interconnect units 902 may be coupled to: an application processor 910 which may include a set of one or more cores 902A-N and shared cache units 906; a system agent unit 910; a bus controller units 916; an integrated memory controller units 914; a set or one or more media processors 920 which may include integrated graphics logic 908, an image processor 924 for providing still and/or video camera functionality, an audio processor 926 for providing hardware audio acceleration, and a video processor 928 for providing video encode/decode acceleration; an static random access memory (SRAM) unit 930; a direct memory access (DMA) unit 932; and a display unit 940 for coupling to one or more external displays.

FIG. 10 illustrates a processor containing a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU), which may perform at least one instruction, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, an instruction to perform operations according to at least one embodiment could be performed by the CPU. In another embodiment, the instruction could be performed by the GPU. In still another embodiment, the instruction may be performed through a combination of operations performed by the GPU and the CPU. For example, in one embodiment, an instruction in accordance with one embodiment may be received and decoded for execution on the GPU. However, one or more operations within the decoded instruction may be performed by a CPU and the result returned to the GPU for final retirement of the instruction. Conversely, in some embodiments, the CPU may act as the primary processor and the GPU as the co-processor.

In some embodiments, instructions that benefit from highly parallel, throughput processors may be performed by the GPU, while instructions that benefit from the performance of processors that benefit from deeply pipelined architectures may be performed by the CPU. For example, graphics, scientific applications, financial applications and other parallel workloads may benefit from the performance of the GPU and be executed accordingly, whereas more sequential applications, such as operating system kernel or application code may be better suited for the CPU.

In FIG. 10, processor 1000 includes a CPU 1005, GPU 1010, image processor 1015, video processor 1020, USB controller 1025, UART controller 1030, SPI/SDIO controller 1035, display device 1040, memory interface controller 1045, MIPI controller 1050, flash memory controller 1055, dual data rate (DDR) controller 1060, security engine 1065, and I²S/I²C controller 1070. Other logic and circuits may be included in the processor of FIG. 10, including more CPUs or GPUs and other peripheral interface controllers.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented by representative data stored on a machine-readable medium which represents various logic within the processor, which when read by a machine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may be stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium (“tape”) and supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabrication machines that actually make the logic or processor. For example, IP cores, such as the Cortex™ family of processors developed by ARM Holdings, Ltd. and Loongson IP cores developed the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences may be licensed or sold to various customers or licensees, such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Apple, or Samsung and implemented in processors produced by these customers or licensees.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram illustrating the development of IP cores, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Storage 1130 may include simulation software 1120 and/or hardware or software model 1110. In one embodiment, the data representing the IP core design may be provided to storage 1130 via memory 1140 (e.g., hard disk), wired connection (e.g., internet) 1150 or wireless connection 1160. The IP core information generated by the simulation tool and model may then be transmitted to a fabrication facility where it may be fabricated by a 3^(rd) party to perform at least one instruction in accordance with at least one embodiment.

In some embodiments, one or more instructions may correspond to a first type or architecture (e.g., x86) and be translated or emulated on a processor of a different type or architecture (e.g., ARM). An instruction, according to one embodiment, may therefore be performed on any processor or processor type, including ARM, x86, MIPS, a GPU, or other processor type or architecture.

FIG. 12 illustrates how an instruction of a first type may be emulated by a processor of a different type, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In FIG. 12, program 1205 contains some instructions that may perform the same or substantially the same function as an instruction according to one embodiment. However the instructions of program 1205 may be of a type and/or format that is different from or incompatible with processor 1215, meaning the instructions of the type in program 1205 may not be able to execute natively by the processor 1215. However, with the help of emulation logic, 1210, the instructions of program 1205 may be translated into instructions that may be natively be executed by the processor 1215. In one embodiment, the emulation logic may be embodied in hardware. In another embodiment, the emulation logic may be embodied in a tangible, machine-readable medium containing software to translate instructions of the type in program 1205 into the type natively executable by processor 1215. In other embodiments, emulation logic may be a combination of fixed-function or programmable hardware and a program stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium. In one embodiment, the processor contains the emulation logic, whereas in other embodiments, the emulation logic exists outside of the processor and may be provided by a third party. In one embodiment, the processor may load the emulation logic embodied in a tangible, machine-readable medium containing software by executing microcode or firmware contained in or associated with the processor.

FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram contrasting the use of a software instruction converter to convert binary instructions in a source instruction set to binary instructions in a target instruction set, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, the instruction converter may be a software instruction converter, although the instruction converter may be implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or various combinations thereof. FIG. 13 shows a program in a high level language 1302 may be compiled using an x86 compiler 1304 to generate x86 binary code 1306 that may be natively executed by a processor with at least one x86 instruction set core 1316. The processor with at least one x86 instruction set core 1316 represents any processor that may perform substantially the same functions as a Intel processor with at least one x86 instruction set core by compatibly executing or otherwise processing (1) a substantial portion of the instruction set of the Intel x86 instruction set core or (2) object code versions of applications or other software targeted to run on an Intel processor with at least one x86 instruction set core, in order to achieve substantially the same result as an Intel processor with at least one x86 instruction set core. x86 compiler 1304 represents a compiler that may be operable to generate x86 binary code 1306 (e.g., object code) that may, with or without additional linkage processing, be executed on the processor with at least one x86 instruction set core 1316. Similarly, FIG. 13 shows the program in high level language 1302 may be compiled using an alternative instruction set compiler 1308 to generate alternative instruction set binary code 1310 that may be natively executed by a processor without at least one x86 instruction set core 1314 (e.g., a processor with cores that execute the MIPS instruction set of MIPS Technologies of Sunnyvale, Calif. and/or that execute the ARM instruction set of ARM Holdings of Sunnyvale, Calif.). Instruction converter 1312 may be used to convert x86 binary code 1306 into code that may be natively executed by the processor without an x86 instruction set core 1314. This converted code might not be the same as alternative instruction set binary code 1310; however, the converted code will accomplish the general operation and be made up of instructions from the alternative instruction set. Thus, instruction converter 1312 represents software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof that, through emulation, simulation or any other process, allows a processor or other electronic device that does not have an x86 instruction set processor or core to execute x86 binary code 1306.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an instruction set architecture 1400 of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Instruction set architecture 1400 may include any suitable number or kind of components.

For example, instruction set architecture 1400 may include processing entities such as one or more cores 1406, 1407 and a graphics processing unit 1415. Cores 1406, 1407 may be communicatively coupled to the rest of instruction set architecture 1400 through any suitable mechanism, such as through a bus or cache. In one embodiment, cores 1406, 1407 may be communicatively coupled through an L2 cache control 1408, which may include a bus interface unit 1409 and an L2 cache 1410. Cores 1406, 1407 and graphics processing unit 1415 may be communicatively coupled to each other and to the remainder of instruction set architecture 1400 through interconnect 1410. In one embodiment, graphics processing unit 1415 may use a video code 1420 defining the manner in which particular video signals will be encoded and decoded for output.

Instruction set architecture 1400 may also include any number or kind of interfaces, controllers, or other mechanisms for interfacing or communicating with other portions of an electronic device or system. Such mechanisms may facilitate interaction with, for example, peripherals, communications devices, other processors, or memory. In the example of FIG. 14, instruction set architecture 1400 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) video interface 1425, a subscriber interface module (SIM) interface 1430, a boot ROM interface 1435, a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) controller 1440, a flash controller 1445, and a serial peripheral interface (SPI) master unit 1450. LCD video interface 1425 may provide output of video signals from, for example, GPU 1415 and through, for example, a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) 1490 or a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) 1495 to a display. Such a display may include, for example, an LCD. SIM interface 1430 may provide access to or from a SIM card or device. SDRAM controller 1440 may provide access to or from memory such as an SDRAM chip or module. Flash controller 1445 may provide access to or from memory such as flash memory or other instances of RAM. SPI master unit 1450 may provide access to or from communications modules, such as a Bluetooth module 1470, high-speed 3G modem 1475, global positioning system module 1480, or wireless module 1485 implementing a communications standard such as 802.11.

FIG. 15 is a more detailed block diagram of an instruction set architecture 1500 of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Instruction architecture 1500 may implement one or more aspects of instruction set architecture 1400. Furthermore, instruction set architecture 1500 may illustrate modules and mechanisms for the execution of instructions within a processor.

Instruction architecture 1500 may include a memory system 1540 communicatively coupled to one or more execution entities 1565. Furthermore, instruction architecture 1500 may include a caching and bus interface unit such as unit 1510 communicatively coupled to execution entities 1565 and memory system 1540. In one embodiment, loading of instructions into execution entities 1564 may be performed by one or more stages of execution. Such stages may include, for example, instruction prefetch stage 1530, dual instruction decode stage 1550, register rename stage 155, issue stage 1560, and writeback stage 1570.

In one embodiment, memory system 1540 may include an executed instruction pointer 1580. Executed instruction pointer 1580 may store a value identifying the oldest, undispatched instruction within a batch of instructions. The oldest instruction may correspond to the lowest Program Order (PO) value. A PO may include a unique number of an instruction. Such an instruction may be a single instruction within a thread represented by multiple strands. A PO may be used in ordering instructions to ensure correct execution semantics of code. A PO may be reconstructed by mechanisms such as evaluating increments to PO encoded in the instruction rather than an absolute value. Such a reconstructed PO may be known as an “RPO.” Although a PO may be referenced herein, such a PO may be used interchangeably with an RPO. A strand may include a sequence of instructions that are data dependent upon each other. The strand may be arranged by a binary translator at compilation time. Hardware executing a strand may execute the instructions of a given strand in order according to PO of the various instructions. A thread may include multiple strands such that instructions of different strands may depend upon each other. A PO of a given strand may be the PO of the oldest instruction in the strand which has not yet been dispatched to execution from an issue stage. Accordingly, given a thread of multiple strands, each strand including instructions ordered by PO, executed instruction pointer 1580 may store the oldest—illustrated by the lowest number—PO in the thread.

In another embodiment, memory system 1540 may include a retirement pointer 1582. Retirement pointer 1582 may store a value identifying the PO of the last retired instruction. Retirement pointer 1582 may be set by, for example, retirement unit 454. If no instructions have yet been retired, retirement pointer 1582 may include a null value.

Execution entities 1565 may include any suitable number and kind of mechanisms by which a processor may execute instructions. In the example of FIG. 15, execution entities 1565 may include ALU/multiplication units (MUL) 1566, ALUs 1567, and floating point units (FPU) 1568. In one embodiment, such entities may make use of information contained within a given address 1569. Execution entities 1565 in combination with stages 1530, 1550, 1555, 1560, 1570 may collectively form an execution unit.

Unit 1510 may be implemented in any suitable manner. In one embodiment, unit 1510 may perform cache control. In such an embodiment, unit 1510 may thus include a cache 1525. Cache 1525 may be implemented, in a further embodiment, as an L2 unified cache with any suitable size, such as zero, 128k, 256k, 512k, 1M, or 2M bytes of memory. In another, further embodiment, cache 1525 may be implemented in error-correcting code memory. In another embodiment, unit 1510 may perform bus interfacing to other portions of a processor or electronic device. In such an embodiment, unit 1510 may thus include a bus interface unit 1520 for communicating over an interconnect, intraprocessor bus, interprocessor bus, or other communication bus, port, or line. Bus interface unit 1520 may provide interfacing in order to perform, for example, generation of the memory and input/output addresses for the transfer of data between execution entities 1565 and the portions of a system external to instruction architecture 1500.

To further facilitate its functions, bus interface unit 1520 may include an interrupt control and distribution unit 1511 for generating interrupts and other communications to other portions of a processor or electronic device. In one embodiment, bus interface unit 1520 may include a snoop control unit 1512 that handles cache access and coherency for multiple processing cores. In a further embodiment, to provide such functionality, snoop control unit 1512 may include a cache-to-cache transfer unit that handles information exchanges between different caches. In another, further embodiment, snoop control unit 1512 may include one or more snoop filters 1514 that monitors the coherency of other caches (not shown) so that a cache controller, such as unit 1510, does not have to perform such monitoring directly. Unit 1510 may include any suitable number of timers 1515 for synchronizing the actions of instruction architecture 1500. Also, unit 1510 may include an AC port 1516.

Memory system 1540 may include any suitable number and kind of mechanisms for storing information for the processing needs of instruction architecture 1500. In one embodiment, memory system 1504 may include a load store unit 1530 for storing information such as buffers written to or read back from memory or registers. In another embodiment, memory system 1504 may include a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) 1545 that provides look-up of address values between physical and virtual addresses. In yet another embodiment, bus interface unit 1520 may include a memory management unit (MMU) 1544 for facilitating access to virtual memory. In still yet another embodiment, memory system 1504 may include a prefetcher 1543 for requesting instructions from memory before such instructions are actually needed to be executed, in order to reduce latency.

The operation of instruction architecture 1500 to execute an instruction may be performed through different stages. For example, using unit 1510 instruction prefetch stage 1530 may access an instruction through prefetcher 1543. Instructions retrieved may be stored in instruction cache 1532. Prefetch stage 1530 may enable an option 1531 for fast-loop mode, wherein a series of instructions forming a loop that is small enough to fit within a given cache are executed. In one embodiment, such an execution may be performed without needing to access additional instructions from, for example, instruction cache 1532. Determination of what instructions to prefetch may be made by, for example, branch prediction unit 1535, which may access indications of execution in global history 1536, indications of target addresses 1537, or contents of a return stack 1538 to determine which of branches 1557 of code will be executed next. Such branches may be possibly prefetched as a result. Branches 1557 may be produced through other stages of operation as described below. Instruction prefetch stage 1530 may provide instructions as well as any predictions about future instructions to dual instruction decode stage.

Dual instruction decode stage 1550 may translate a received instruction into microcode-based instructions that may be executed. Dual instruction decode stage 1550 may simultaneously decode two instructions per clock cycle. Furthermore, dual instruction decode stage 1550 may pass its results to register rename stage 1555. In addition, dual instruction decode stage 1550 may determine any resulting branches from its decoding and eventual execution of the microcode. Such results may be input into branches 1557.

Register rename stage 1555 may translate references to virtual registers or other resources into references to physical registers or resources. Register rename stage 1555 may include indications of such mapping in a register pool 1556. Register rename stage 1555 may alter the instructions as received and send the result to issue stage 1560.

Issue stage 1560 may issue or dispatch commands to execution entities 1565. Such issuance may be performed in an out-of-order fashion. In one embodiment, multiple instructions may be held at issue stage 1560 before being executed. Issue stage 1560 may include an instruction queue 1561 for holding such multiple commands. Instructions may be issued by issue stage 1560 to a particular processing entity 1565 based upon any acceptable criteria, such as availability or suitability of resources for execution of a given instruction. In one embodiment, issue stage 1560 may reorder the instructions within instruction queue 1561 such that the first instructions received might not be the first instructions executed. Based upon the ordering of instruction queue 1561, additional branching information may be provided to branches 1557. Issue stage 1560 may pass instructions to executing entities 1565 for execution.

Upon execution, writeback stage 1570 may write data into registers, queues, or other structures of instruction set architecture 1500 to communicate the completion of a given command. Depending upon the order of instructions arranged in issue stage 1560, the operation of writeback stage 1570 may enable additional instructions to be executed. Performance of instruction set architecture 1500 may be monitored or debugged by trace unit 1575.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an execution pipeline 1600 for an instruction set architecture of a processor, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Execution pipeline 1600 may illustrate operation of, for example, instruction architecture 1500 of FIG. 15.

Execution pipeline 1600 may include any suitable combination of steps or operations. In 1605, predictions of the branch that is to be executed next may be made. In one embodiment, such predictions may be based upon previous executions of instructions and the results thereof. In 1610, instructions corresponding to the predicted branch of execution may be loaded into an instruction cache. In 1615, one or more such instructions in the instruction cache may be fetched for execution. In 1620, the instructions that have been fetched may be decoded into microcode or more specific machine language. In one embodiment, multiple instructions may be simultaneously decoded. In 1625, references to registers or other resources within the decoded instructions may be reassigned. For example, references to virtual registers may be replaced with references to corresponding physical registers. In 1630, the instructions may be dispatched to queues for execution. In 1640, the instructions may be executed. Such execution may be performed in any suitable manner. In 1650, the instructions may be issued to a suitable execution entity. The manner in which the instruction is executed may depend upon the specific entity executing the instruction. For example, at 1655, an ALU may perform arithmetic functions. The ALU may utilize a single clock cycle for its operation, as well as two shifters. In one embodiment, two ALUs may be employed, and thus two instructions may be executed at 1655. At 1660, a determination of a resulting branch may be made. A program counter may be used to designate the destination to which the branch will be made. 1660 may be executed within a single clock cycle. At 1665, floating point arithmetic may be performed by one or more FPUs. The floating point operation may require multiple clock cycles to execute, such as two to ten cycles. At 1670, multiplication and division operations may be performed. Such operations may be performed in four clock cycles. At 1675, loading and storing operations to registers or other portions of pipeline 1600 may be performed. The operations may include loading and storing addresses. Such operations may be performed in four clock cycles. At 1680, write-back operations may be performed as required by the resulting operations of 1655-1675.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an electronic device 1700 for utilizing a processor 1710, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Electronic device 1700 may include, for example, a notebook, an ultrabook, a computer, a tower server, a rack server, a blade server, a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, a mobile device, a phone, an embedded computer, or any other suitable electronic device.

Electronic device 1700 may include processor 1710 communicatively coupled to any suitable number or kind of components, peripherals, modules, or devices. Such coupling may be accomplished by any suitable kind of bus or interface, such as I²C bus, system management bus (SMBus), low pin count (LPC) bus, SPI, high definition audio (HDA) bus, Serial Advance Technology Attachment (SATA) bus, USB bus (versions 1, 2, 3), or Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) bus.

Such components may include, for example, a display 1724, a touch screen 1725, a touch pad 1730, a near field communications (NFC) unit 1745, a sensor hub 1740, a thermal sensor 1746, an express chipset (EC) 1735, a trusted platform module (TPM) 1738, BIOS/firmware/flash memory 1722, a digital signal processor 1760, a drive 1720 such as a solid state disk (SSD) or a hard disk drive (HDD), a wireless local area network (WLAN) unit 1750, a Bluetooth unit 1752, a wireless wide area network (WWAN) unit 1756, a global positioning system (GPS), a camera 1754 such as a USB 3.0 camera, or a low power double data rate (LPDDR) memory unit 1715 implemented in, for example, the LPDDR3 standard. These components may each be implemented in any suitable manner.

Furthermore, in various embodiments other components may be communicatively coupled to processor 1710 through the components discussed above. For example, an accelerometer 1741, ambient light sensor (ALS) 1742, compass 1743, and gyroscope 1744 may be communicatively coupled to sensor hub 1740. A thermal sensor 1739, fan 1737, keyboard 1746, and touch pad 1730 may be communicatively coupled to EC 1735. Speaker 1763, headphones 1764, and a microphone 1765 may be communicatively coupled to an audio unit 1764, which may in turn be communicatively coupled to DSP 1760. Audio unit 1764 may include, for example, an audio codec and a class D amplifier. A SIM card 1757 may be communicatively coupled to WWAN unit 1756. Components such as WLAN unit 1750 and Bluetooth unit 1752, as well as WWAN unit 1756 may be implemented in a next generation form factor (NGFF).

Embodiments of the present disclosure involve an instruction and logic for scheduling operations for execution. Such scheduling may be performed with algorithms implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Furthermore, such scheduling may be performed in a group of processors, such as clustered microprocessors. In one embodiment, such an instruction and logic may be a logical move in an out-of-order processor. FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a system 1800 for scheduling instructions and/or operations for execution, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

System 1800 may include any suitable number and kind of elements to perform the operations described herein. Furthermore, although specific elements of system 1800 may be described herein as performing a specific function, any suitable portion of system 1800 may perform the functionality described herein. System 1800 may fetch, dispatch, execute, and retire instructions out-of-order. Such instructions may include an instruction stream 1802 to be executed by a processor 1804. The instruction stream may be provided by an application, object code, compiler, interpreter, or another processor or part of processor 1804.

System 1800 may include a processor 1804 to process instructions. Processor 1804 may be implemented in part by any processor core, logical processor, processor, or other processing entity such as those illustrated in FIGS. 1-17. Processor 1804 may include front end 1812, which in turn may include any suitable number or kind of components. For example, front end 1812 may include fetch and decode engine 1814.

Fetch and decode engine 1814 may decode instruction stream 1802 into a series of in-order or out-of-order operations that represent the data flow of instruction stream 1802. The instructions may be decoded into operations or micro-operations (“uops”). In one embodiment, such uops may include, for example, two logical sources and one logical destination. The uops may be issued from instruction fetch and decode engine 1814 to renaming and allocation unit 1816. If a processor has only a limited number of logical registers, renaming and allocation unit 1816 may map logical register references to physical register references.

The uops may be sent from renaming and allocation unit 1816 to a scheduler, such as dual-mode matrix scheduler 1820. Dual-mode matrix scheduler 1820 may store several pending uops in a queue, and may select from this queue the uop or uops to be performed next. Dual-mode matrix scheduler 1820 may select uops such that a child uop may not be performed before the child's parent uop. Dual-mode matrix scheduler 1820 may determine whether every source register used by a uop may be ready to be used. If each of the uop's sources are ready, and if execution resources are available, the uop may be dispatched to an execution resource such as core 1822, where the operation may be performed. Accordingly, uops may be dispatched based on data flow constraints and resource availability rather than the original ordering of instruction stream 1802. Further, core 1822 may be implemented in any suitable manner. A given core 1822 may include any suitable number, kind, and combination of execution units.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to instructions and logic for scheduling operations with a dual-mode matrix scheduler (e.g., dual-mode matrix scheduler 1820) that may utilize a dual-mode dependency matrix. For the purposes of the present disclosure, the functionality of a primary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler is described below with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20. The structure of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, as well as the functionality of both a primary mode and a secondary mode of the dual-mode matrix scheduler, are described below with reference to FIGS. 21 to 23.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating the functionality of a primary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Each uop that enters the dual-mode matrix scheduler may be placed into a position, or entry, in scheduling queue 1910. As an example used for illustration purposes, scheduling queue 1910 may have four entries labeled “0” to “3.” Each entry may include a valid bit indicating whether or not there may be a uop waiting in that queue position. As indicated by a “V” in FIG. 19, position 1 of queue 1910 may contain uopB. In one embodiment, “V” may represent, for example, a bit having a value of logical “1.” Similarly, position 3 may contain uopA. Positions 0 and 2 may be empty. Scheduling queue 1910 may also include a destination register for each entry. In one embodiment, the destination register (pdst) may be located in a physical register pool (e.g., a physical register file) along with one or more source registers (psrc). As shown in FIG. 19, the result of uopB may be placed in register 1 (r1) and the result of uopA may be placed in register 3 (r3).

The stream of entering uops may be in-order, so a parent of an entering uop may be either pending inside the dual-mode matrix scheduler or may have already been dispatched. Each matrix logic bit 1925 in the dependency matrix may correspond to the dependency of a uop in one queue position to a uop in another queue position. For example, the “D” in row 1, column 3 may indicate that the uop in entry 1 (e.g., uopB) may be dependent on the result produced by the uop in entry 3 (e.g., uopA). In other words, uopB may use the destination of uopA (e.g., r3) as a source. “D” may represent, for example, a bit having a value of logical “1” to indicate the dependence.

When a new uop enters scheduling queue 1910, allocation logic may determine which available position within a queue (e.g., queue 1910) may be used. The entering uop may be written into that position using write ports (not expressly shown in FIG. 19), and the sources of the entering uop may be matched against the destination register file using compare (CAM) ports (also not expressly shown in FIG. 19). A match between an entering uop's source and a pending uop's destination may indicate that the entering uop may be dependent on the pending entry, and a “D” may be stored at the appropriate position in dependency matrix 1920. Although a dependency matrix having “rows” and “columns” with a specific relationship to dependencies is used herein as an example, other structures, such as a matrix in which the terms “rows” and “columns” are switched, may be utilized.

Dependency matrix 1920 may reflect which uops are ready to dispatch. For example, a uop with any dependency bit set may wait for the parent associated with the dependency bit to dispatch. As shown in FIG. 19, row 3 (which corresponds to uopA) may be free of dependency bits, indicating that uopA may not depend on any other pending uops. Accordingly, uopA may be available for dispatch. However, row 1 (which corresponds to uopB) may include a dependency bit “D” at row 1, column 3. As described above, the dependency bit at row 1, column 3, may indicate that uopB depends on uopA, which may be still pending in row 3. Because uopB depends on a pending uop, uopB may not be ready to dispatch.

The dispatch status of each entry in the matrix scheduler may be determined by ready determination logic and may be stored as a dispatch logic bit 1930. As described directly above, the ready determination logic may check to see if an entire row is clear. Such a function may be implemented as a simple wired-OR structure, which may be designed for very high frequencies. If multiple pending uops are ready for dispatch at one time, priority logic may determine which uop may be dispatched first. Finally, deallocation logic may determine which entries in the scheduling queue 1910 may be “deallocated,” and which positions in the queue may subsequently be empty and ready to be used again.

When a uop dispatches, the corresponding column in dependency matrix 1920 may be cleared because any dependency bit (e.g., “D”) that was set in the corresponding column indicated dependency of a child uop on a now-dispatched parent uop. For example, as shown by an arrow in FIG. 19, column 3 may be cleared when uopA dispatches. Accordingly, the dependency “D” in row 1, column 3, may be cleared and uopB may have no remaining dependencies. With no remaining dependencies, uopB may be available to dispatch in a subsequent cycle.

FIGS. 20A-20C are diagrams illustrating the scheduling of uops utilizing a primary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 20A, the scheduler may include an out-of-order scheduling queue 2010 with eight positions, labeled from “0” to “7,” but any number of positions may be used. Moreover, although certain positions (e.g., positions “0” to “2” and positions “4” to “7”) may be described herein as utilizing the primary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, other positions (e.g., position “3”) may utilize the secondary mode of a dual-mode matrix scheduler, as described in further detail below with reference to FIGS. 21-23.

Each position in the scheduling queue 2010 may contain a validity indication and information about the uop, including the uop's destination. At time T=0 the scheduling queue 2010 may have six entries with a validity bit set to “V.” Thus, for example, queue position 0 may be empty and queue position 1 may contain an entry which uses register 11 as the destination.

Each row in dependency matrix 2020 may correspond to a position in scheduling queue 2010. Each column in dependency matrix 2020 may be associated with a dependency on a position in scheduling queue 2010. For example, the “D” at row 1, column 7 may indicate that the uop in queue position 1 depends on the uop in queue position 7. That is, the operation in queue position 1 may be the child of the operation in queue position 7. Of the six entries in scheduling queue 2010 at time T=0, only the entry in queue position 7 does not depend on any other entry. Thus, only the entry in queue position 7 may be ready to be dispatched to an execution unit.

At time T=0, two newly issued uops may be ready to be placed in scheduling queue 2010. The first source (S11) of the first uop may be register 11 and the second source (S12) may be register 2. The destination of the first uop (D1) may be register 17. Accordingly, the first uop may use registers 11 and 2 to create a value that may be placed in register 17. The first source of the second uop (S21) may be register 14, the second source (S22) may be register 12, and the destination (D2) may be register 19. Scheduling queue 2010 and dependency matrix 2020 shown in FIG. 20A may use, for illustration purposes, a superscalar processor that may process two uops simultaneously. In this way, two uops may be allocated into the scheduler, and two uops may be scheduled, in any one cycle. The first uop may be placed into queue position 0, although it could instead be placed into any other otherwise empty queue position. The second uop may be placed into queue position 6.

Referring now to FIG. 20B, at time T=1 the entry in queue position 7 may have been dispatched and the queue position 7 may now empty. Each time an entry in the queue is dispatched, the entire column in the matrix associated with that entry may also be cleared because any child operation that depends on a dispatched uop no longer needs to wait for the destination of the now-dispatched uop to become ready. For example, the “D” at rows 1 and 4 of column 7 may be cleared in response to the entry in queue position 7 having been dispatched. Because dependencies in column 7 may have been cleared, uops in queue 1 and queue 4 may be ready for dispatch at time T=1.

When new uops enter the scheduler, dependency may be recorded in the form of dependency matrix 2020. The uop placed in queue position 0 may have register 11 as a source. Thus, the bit in the matrix associated with queue position 1 may be set to “D” because the uop in queue position 1 may have register 11 as its destination. Accordingly, the dependency bit “D” may ensure that the uop in queue position 0, which needs to use the value of register 11, is performed before the uop in queue position 1. The uop entered into queue position 0 may also have register 2 as a source. However, no entry in the queue has register 2 as a destination. Therefore, the value in register 2 may already be valid, and therefore no dependency may be needed. With respect to the uop entered into queue position 6, the boxes in columns 2 and 4 may be flagged to note the dependency on both registers 12 and 14, respectively.

Referring now to FIG. 20C, at time T=2 the uops in queue positions 1 and 4 may have been dispatched, and the two columns associated with those entries may have been cleared. The uop placed in queue position 0 may therefore have no dependencies on pending uops and thus may be ready for dispatch. The uops placed in queue positions 5 and 6, however, may depend on register 14 as a source and thus may depend on the uop pending in queue position 2, which may utilize register 14 as its destination.

In a superscalar processor, where 2 uops can arrive at the scheduler simultaneously, care must be taken in case a parent arrives in one channel at the same time its child arrives in another channel. In this case, the entering child uop will not find its parent in scheduling queue 2010, but this information may still be needed to correctly setup dependency matrix 2020. In such a case, dependency checks between concurrent uops may be performed as those uops are placed in dependency matrix 2020. The program order may guarantee that only the later uop's sources must be compared to the earlier uop's destination, thus the compare may not need to be performed both ways. The result of the compare, or concurrency bit, may then be accounted for when setting up dependency matrix 2020.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include allocation logic 2110, matrix 2120A, matrix 2120B, ready determination unit 2130, priority logic 2140, and “n” number of multiplexors (MUX) 2150 n. As described in further detail below, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include a number of multiplexors 2150 corresponding to the number of queue positions and/or rows in the matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B) of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100.

In one embodiment, allocation logic 2110 may anticipate the latency of one or more parents of queued uops. For example, allocation logic 2110 may determine a category of a uop based on an anticipated number of cycles that the parents of the uop may require to be executed. For example, allocation logic 2110 may categorize uops anticipated to be executed within a threshold number of cycles as short-latency uops, and may categorize uops anticipated to be executed outside of the threshold number or cycles to be long-latency uops. In one embodiment, uops taking a single cycle to execute may be classified as short-latency uops, and uops taking two or more cycles to execute may be classified as long-latency uops.

In one embodiment, allocation logic 2110 may queue uops that enter dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 in either a primary mode or in a secondary mode depending on the anticipated latency of the parent uops. For example, allocation logic 2110 may utilize a primary mode for uops with short-latency parents and a secondary mode for uops with long-latency parents. As described above, a single uop may have two or more sources and thus may be dependent on two or more parent uops. In one embodiment, a child uop may have first parent uop that may be a short-latency uop and a second parent uop that may be a long-latency uop. For such an embodiment, allocation logic 2110 may queue the incoming uop on a per-source basis. For example, allocation logic 2110 may queue one of the child uop's sources in the primary mode, and the other of the uop's sources in the secondary mode.

For uops with a short-latency parent, allocation logic 2110 may populate a dependency matrix in a similar manner as described above with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20. However, in one embodiment, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include multiple matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and 2120B) which may track dependencies on a per-source basis. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 18, uops may include two sources and one destination. For such embodiments, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include two matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and 2120B). A first source upon which a uop may depend may be tracked in first matrix 2120A. Likewise, a second source upon which a uop may depend may be tracked in second matrix 2120B. As an illustrative example, matrices 2120A and 2120B may combine to track the same primary-mode dependencies as illustrated by matrix 2020 in FIG. 20A at time T=0. The following first-source dependencies may be tracked in matrix 2120A for the uops in queue 1 (row 1A, column 7), queue 2 (row 2A, column 4), queue 4 (row 4A, column 7), and queue 5 (row 5A, column 4). Further, a second-source dependency may be tracked in matrix 2120B for the uop in queue5 (row 5A, column 2). Although dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may be illustrated as including two matrices (e.g., 2120A and 2120B), dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include any suitable number of matrices (or sets of sub-matrices), to track dependencies on a per-source basis. For example, in schedulers in which uops may include three sources and one destination, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may include three matrices (or three sets of sub-matrices).

Ready determination unit 2130 may detect whether certain uops are ready to be dispatched. For uops utilizing the primary mode of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100, ready determination unit 2130 may monitor whether the entire row or rows associated with a queued uop has been cleared. For example, at time T=0, queue 7 may include a pending uop, for which no dependencies remain. Ready determination unit 2130 may implement a logical OR function to determine whether any bit in row 7A or row 7B indicates a dependency. If each bit in row 7A and each bit in row 7B has been cleared (e.g., set to logical “0”), ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the uop in queue 7 may be ready for dispatch. If multiple pending uops are ready for dispatch, priority logic 2140 may determine which of the ready operations should be scheduled and sent to an execution unit (e.g., core 1822) first.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20, a clearing signal corresponding to a dispatched uop may be fed back to the one or more matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and 2120B) to clear any dependencies based on the now-dispatched uop. In one embodiment, a primary-mode clearing signal may be used to clear any dependencies for queued uops with short-latency parents, and a secondary-mode clearing signal may be utilized to clear any dependencies for queued uops with long-latency parents. For example, after dispatching the uop in queue 7, a primary-mode clearing signal may be sent to an array of multiplexors (MUX) 2150. In one embodiment, the array of multiplexors may include one MUX 2150 for every row and/or queue of matrix 2120A and 2120B. The respective instances of MUX 2150 in the array of multiplexors may gate the primary-mode clearing signal and may forward the primary mode clearing signal to each row corresponding to a queued uop with a short-latency parent. For example, each instance of MUX 2150 associated with a queue including a uop with a short-latency parent may gate the primary-mode clearing signal and may forward the primary-mode clearing signal to column 7 in the respective rows in matrices 2120A and 2120B associated with the queued uops with short-latency parents. Accordingly, the dependencies indicated at row 1A, column 7, and at row 4A, column 7, may be cleared, while the information in rows 3A and 3B associated with a uop with a long-latency parent may remain unchanged. Similar to the description above with reference to FIGS. 20A and 20B, after the dependencies in row 1A, column 7, and in row 4A, column 7, have been cleared, ready determination unit 2130 may determine in a subsequent cycle that the uops stored in queue 1 and queue 4 (which had short-latency parents that are now cleared) may be ready for dispatch.

In addition to scheduling uops with short-latency parents in a primary mode, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may schedule uops with long-latency parents in a secondary mode. The secondary mode may be compatible with the primary mode, and thus may utilize the same matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B) as the primary mode. Moreover, after one type of uop (e.g., a uop with short-latency parent or a uop with long latency parent) has been dispatched from a queue, the same or the other type of uop may be assigned to that queue. For example, after a uop with a short-latency parent has been dispatched from queue 3, a uop with a long-latency parent may be assigned to queue 3 as shown in FIG. 21 at row 3A of matrix 2120A and at row 3B of matrix 2120B.

Allocation logic 2110 may distinguish uops with long-latency parents from uops with short-latency parents. Moreover, to track dependencies of uops with long-latency parents, the information populated by allocation logic 2110 in dependency matrices 2120A and 2120B may take a different form than the information populated by allocation logic 2110 in dependency matrices 2120A and 2120B for uops with short-latency parents. For example, for queued uops with long-latency parents, allocation logic 2110 may store information associated with the physical address of a source of the queued uop. In one embodiment, the physical address of a source (PSRC), as well as the bit-wise inverted version of the physical address of the source (PSRC_BAR), may be stored in a row of the matrix (e.g., 2120A or 2120B).

In one embodiment, the physical address information of a first source of the uop with long-latency parents may be stored in matrix 2120A and the physical address of a second source of the uop with long-latency parents may be stored in matrix 2120B. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 21, a uop with long-latency parents may be assigned to queue 3 of the dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100. The physical address of a first source (PSRCA), and the bit wise inverted version of the physical address of the first source (PSRCA_BAR), may be stored in row 3A of matrix 2120A. Likewise, if a second source of the uop assigned to queue 3 is still pending, the physical address of the second source (PSRCB), and the bit wise inverted version of the physical address of the second source (PSRCB_BAR), may be stored in row 3B of matrix 2120B.

In one embodiment, matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B may be sized such that each respective matrix may have the same bit width as the combination of a physical source address (e.g., PSRCA or PSRCB) and the bit-wise inverted version of the physical source address (e.g., PSRCA_BAR or PSRCB_BAR). In some embodiments however, the combined width of a physical source address (e.g., PSRCA or PSRCB) and the bit-wise inverter version of the physical source address (e.g., PSRCA_BAR or PSRCB_BAR) may be greater or lesser than the width necessary to track dependencies for uops with short-latency parents. In such embodiments, each row of matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B may include extra bits that may be unused when the mode requiring less bit width is utilized for a queued uop.

In some embodiments, a source (psrc) may be unique for wakeup purposes until the uop is woken up and marked as ready to be dispatched because the destination (pdst) of the parent producer uop is unique until the parent uop with that pdst has retired, after the parent uop has been deallocated from the matrix scheduler queue. For example, a long-latency integer/floating-point uop may take up to, for example, seventy cycles or more. Further, a load uop missing a cache may take up to a few hundred cycles or more. Because the secondary mode may utilize information associated with physical source addresses, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may efficiently track dependencies for uops with long-latency parents over an extended period of time. Thus, when utilizing the secondary mode, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may avoid aliasing problems involved with early deallocation of the producing uop from the scheduler.

As described directly above, the information populated by allocation logic 2110 in dependency matrices 2120A and 2120B for uops with long-latency parents may take a different form than the information populated by allocation logic 2110 in dependency matrices 2120A and 2120B for uops with short-latency parents. Accordingly, the clearing signal utilized to clear dependencies of uops with long-latency parents may also take a different form than the signal for clearing dependencies of uops with short-latency parents. For example, a tag comparison may be used by dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 to clear dependencies of uops with long-latency parents.

When a uop is dispatched, multiplexor (MUX) 2150 may receive a primary-mode clearing signal as well as secondary-mode clearing signal for that uop. For example, similar to the description above with reference to FIG. 20A, the uop in queue 7 of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may be dispatched at time T=0. When the uop is dispatched from queue 7, priority logic 2140 may send a primary-mode clearing signal and a secondary-mode clearing signal to MUX 2150. In turn, MUX 2150 may forward the primary-mode clearing signal to column 7 of each row in matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B that may be associated with a queued uop with a short-latency parent. Subsequently, the primary-mode dependencies in, for example, row 1A, column 7, and row 4A, column 7 may be cleared.

MUX 2150 may also forward the secondary-mode clearing signal to the matrix bit logic of all rows that may be associated with a queued uop with a long-latency parent (e.g., rows 3A and 3B associated with queue 3). The secondary-mode clearing signal may be transmitted to a row associated with a uop having a long-latency parent such that a tag comparison may be performed in the matrix between the physical destination address (PDST) of the dispatched uop and the physical source address (PSRC) of the pending uop with the long-latency parent. For example, the secondary-mode clearing signal may include the physical destination address (PDST) of the dispatched uop as well as a bit-wise inverted version of the physical destination address (PDST_BAR). To perform the tag comparison, PDST of the clearing signal may be aligned with PSRC_BAR in one half of the row, and PDST_BAR may be aligned with PSRC in the other half of the row. Performance of the tag comparison is described in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 22. Further, because the secondary mode may utilize information associated with physical source addresses, MUX 2150 may receive and forward secondary-mode clearing signals from either priority logic 2140 within dual-mode matrix scheduler, or from an External Wakeup 2170 when a long-latency parent of a uop has been dispatched by a resource external to dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 (e.g., an additional scheduler external to dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100).

FIG. 22 illustrates a block diagram of matrix bit logic 2125, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, each bit location in matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B may include an instance of matrix bit logic 2125. In one embodiment, matrix bit logic 2125 may include latch 2210 and logical AND gate 2220.

As described above with reference to FIG. 21, allocation logic 2110 may determine a dependency for a uop with a short-latency parent and track that dependency by storing an indicator in the matrix. For example, allocation logic 2110 may store a dependency indicator (e.g., a logical “1”) in latch 2210 of the matrix bit logic 2125 located at row 1A, column 7, in matrix 2120A, to indicate that the uop in queue 1 is dependent on the short-latency uop in queue 7. When matrix bit logic 2125 subsequently receives a primary-mode clearing signal, the dependency indicator may be cleared from latch 2210. For example, a logical “1” stored in latch 2210 may be cleared and a logical “0” may be passed to AND gate 2220, which may in turn output a logical “0” to the matrix.

In one embodiment, the AND gate 2220 may also be used in primary mode to speculatively clear the matrix bit for a window of time to allow speculative scheduling, which may enhance the speed of execution. After the speculative window has completed, the matrix bit may be returned to the value stored in latch 2210, or may be cleared by a primary mode clearing signal as described directly above.

As also described above with reference to FIG. 21, allocation logic 2110 may store PSRC and PSCR_BAR values in the matrix bits forming the rows of matrix 2120A and/or matrix 2120B associated with a queued uop with a long-latency parent. When matrix logic bit 2125 receives a secondary-mode clearing signal, the particular PSRC(i) or PSRC_BAR(i) value for that matrix logic bit 2125 may be maintained by latch 2210 and provided to a first input of logical AND gate 2220. However, the secondary-mode clearing signal (e.g., PDST_BAR(i) or PDST(i)) for the matrix logic bit 2125 may be provided to a second input of logical AND gate 2220. Accordingly, a tag comparison may be performed in the matrix between the physical destination address (PDST) of the dispatched uop and the physical source address (PSRC) of the pending uop with a long-latency parent as described in the following equations:

Matrix Row Left Half(i)=PSRC(i)& PDST_BAR(i);  (Eq. 1):

Matrix Row Right Half(i)=PSRC_BAR(i)& PDST(i).  (Eq. 2):

Similar to the operation of the primary mode, ready determination unit 2130 may apply a logical OR function to each matrix bit logic 2125 in a row associated with a queued uop with a long-latency parent. Accordingly, equations 1 and 2 may be combined into equation 3 as follows:

[PSRC(i)& PDST_BAR(i)] OR [PSRC_BAR(i)& PDST(i)].  (Eq. 3):

Equation 3 implements a logical exclusive-OR function, and therefore may be rewritten as follows:

PSRC(i) XOR PDST(i).  (Eq. 4):

If the output of the tag comparison as represented by equation 4 equals, for example, logical “1,” ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the physical destination address of the dispatched uop does not match the physical source address of one of the sources of the pending uop. Accordingly, the pending uop (with the long-latency parent) may not itself be ready for dispatch, and the PSRC(i) and PSRC_BAR(i) values may be maintained by latch 2210 in each instance of matrix bit logic 2125 in a row for tag comparisons with the physical source destinations of other dispatched uops. But if the output of the tag comparison as represented by equation 4 does equal, for example, logical “0,” ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the dispatched long-latency uop is a parent of the queued uop, and that the queued uop may no longer be waiting on the parent uop to dispatch. If the dependency has been cleared for each source (e.g., PSRCA in matrix 2120A and PSRCB in matrix 2120B), ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the uop with the long-latency parent may be ready for dispatch. Priority logic 2140 may then dispatch the uop to an execution unit (e.g., core 1822) for execution.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of an example embodiment of a method 2300 for scheduling uops in a processor. Method 2300 may illustrate uops performed, for example, by dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100. Method 2300 may begin at any suitable point and may execute in any suitable order. Method 2300 may be performed for each core of a processor. In one embodiment, method 2300 may begin at step 2302.

At 2302, a plurality of uops may be received. For example, a dual-mode matrix scheduler such as dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may receive a plurality of uops from instruction stream 1802 via fetch and decode logic 1814 and renaming and allocation module 1816 of processor 1804.

At 2304, it may be determined whether received uops have short-latency parents or long-latency parents. For example, allocation logic 2110 may predict how many cycles it may take to execute a parent uop, and may determine that parent uops anticipated to be executed within a threshold number of cycles are short-latency uops, and may determine that parent uops anticipated to be executed outside of the threshold number or cycles are long-latency uops. For example, in one embodiment, parent uops taking a single cycle to execute may be determined to be short-latency parent uops, and parent uops taking two or more cycles execute may be determined to be long-latency parent uops.

At 2306, uops pending in dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 with no remaining dependencies may be dispatched to an execution module (e.g., core 1822) for execution.

At 2320 a uop with short-latency parents may be queued in dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100. And at 2340, a uop with long-latency parents may be queued in dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100. Allocation logic 2110 may queue uops that enter dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 in a primary mode and/or in a secondary mode depending on the anticipated latency of the respective parents of the uops. For example, allocation logic 2110 may utilize a primary mode of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 to queue and dispatch uops with short-latency parents, and may utilize a secondary mode of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 to queue and dispatch uops with long-latency parents. As another example, if a uop has one long-latency parent and one short-latency parent, allocation logic 2110 may utilize the primary mode to queue one source of the uop, and may utilize the secondary mode to queue the other source of the uop.

At 2322, dependencies of the uop with short-latency parents may be determined based on pending short-latency uops. For example, a first source of the uop with short latency parents may be matched against the destination register file using compare (CAM) ports. A match between the first source of the uop and destination of a pending short-latency uop may indicate that the uop may be dependent on the pending short-latency uop. The second source of the uop may be compared to the pending uops in a similar manner. Accordingly, at 2324, a first-source dependence (e.g., a “D” or a logical “1”) may be stored at the appropriate position in dependency matrix 2120A. Similarly, at 2326, a second-source dependence (e.g., a “D” or a logical “1”) may be stored at the appropriate position in dependence matrix 2120B.

Referring back to 2306, one or more uops that are queued and pending in dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may be dispatched to an execution unit. Subsequently at 2328, the dependencies stored in matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B based on the now-dispatched uop may be cleared. For example, after dispatching a uop that has been pending in queue 7 of dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100, a primary-mode clearing signal may be sent to an array of multiplexors (MUX) 2150. An instance of MUX 2150 may gate the primary-mode clearing signal and may forward the clearing signal to column 7 for each row in matrices 2120A and 2120B associated with a uop that may have been determined to have a short-latency parent. Accordingly, the dependencies illustrated in FIG. 21 at row 1A, column 7, and at row 4A, column 7, of matrix 2120A may be cleared.

At 2330, a determination of whether the uop (with the short latency parents) is ready to dispatch may be made. For example, after the dependencies in row 1A, column 7, and in row 4A, column 7, have been cleared from matrix 2120A at step 2328, ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the uops (with short latency parents) stored in queue 1 and queue 4 may be ready for dispatch.

At step 2332, the uops with the short-latency parents may be dispatched. For example, the uops stored in queue 1 and queue 4 of dual-mode matrix scheduler may be dispatched to an execution unit.

In addition to scheduling uops with short-latency parents in a primary mode, dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100 may schedule uops with long-latency parents in a secondary mode. The secondary mode may be compatible with the primary mode, and thus may utilize the same matrices (e.g., matrix 2120A and matrix 2120B) as the primary mode.

Referring back to 2340, a uop with a long-latency parent may be queued in dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100.

At 2342, a physical address of a first source of the uop with the long-latency parent may be stored in a first dependency matrix. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 21, a uop with a long-latency parent may be assigned to queue 3 of the dual-mode matrix scheduler 2100. The physical address of a first source (PSRCA), and the bit wise inverted version of the physical address of the first source (PSRCA_BAR), may be stored in row 3A of matrix 2120A.

At 2344, a physical address of a second source of the uop with long-latency parents may be stored in a second dependency matrix. For example, if a second source of a uop assigned to queue 3 is still pending, the physical address of the second source (PSRCB), and the bit wise inverted version of the physical address of the second source (PSRCB_BAR), may be stored in row 3B of matrix 2120B.

At 2346, tag comparisons between the physical addresses of the sources of the uop and the physical address of a destination of a dispatched uop may be performed. In one embodiment, the tag comparisons may implement a logical XOR function as described above with reference to FIG. 22 and equations 1-4 above.

At 2348, it may be determined whether the uop with long latency parents is ready to be dispatched. For example, if the output of the tag comparison as represented by equation 4 equals, for example, logical “0,” ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the dispatched uop is a long-latency parent of the queued uop, and that the queued uop may no longer be waiting on the long-latency parent uop to dispatch. If the dependency has been cleared for each source (e.g., PSRCA in matrix 2120A and PSRCB in matrix 2120B), ready determination unit 2130 may determine that the uop (with the long-latency parents) may be ready for dispatch. Accordingly, at 2350, priority logic 2140 may dispatch the uop to an execution unit (e.g., core 1822) for execution.

Although FIG. 23 depicts a certain number of steps and a certain order of steps for method 2300, method 2300 may be implemented with any suitable number of steps performed in any suitable order. For example, as described above, in some embodiments, a single child uop may have a first parent that is a short-latency uop and may have a second parent that is a long-latency uop. Such uops may have different sources queued in different modes of dual-mode matrix scheduler. Accordingly, such uops may be queued and dispatched through any suitable combination of steps 2320-2332 and steps 2340-2350. Further, method 2300 may be initiated by any suitable criteria. Furthermore, although method 2300 describes an uop of particular elements, method 2300 may be performed by any suitable combination or type of elements. For example, method 2300 may be implemented by the elements illustrated in FIGS. 1-22 or any other system operable to implement method 2300. As such, the preferred initialization point for method 2300 and the order of the elements comprising method 2300 may depend on the implementation chosen. In some embodiments, some elements may be optionally omitted, reorganized, repeated, or combined. Furthermore, various portions of method 2300 may be performed fully or in part in parallel with each other.

Embodiments of the mechanisms disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination of such implementation approaches. Embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented as computer programs or program code executing on programmable systems comprising at least one processor, a storage system (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device.

Program code may be applied to input instructions to perform the functions described herein and generate output information. The output information may be applied to one or more output devices, in known fashion. For purposes of this application, a processing system may include any system that has a processor, such as, for example; a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a microprocessor.

The program code may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a processing system. The program code may also be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In fact, the mechanisms described herein are not limited in scope to any particular programming language. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented by representative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium which represents various logic within the processor, which when read by a machine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may be stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium and supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabrication machines that actually make the logic or processor.

Such machine-readable storage media may include, without limitation, non-transitory, tangible arrangements of articles manufactured or formed by a machine or device, including storage media such as hard disks, any other type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk rewritables (CD-RWs), and magneto-optical disks, semiconductor devices such as read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), flash memories, electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions.

Accordingly, embodiments of the disclosure may also include non-transitory, tangible machine-readable media containing instructions or containing design data, such as Hardware Description Language (HDL), which defines structures, circuits, apparatuses, processors and/or system features described herein. Such embodiments may also be referred to as program products.

In some cases, an instruction converter may be used to convert an instruction from a source instruction set to a target instruction set. For example, the instruction converter may translate (e.g., using static binary translation, dynamic binary translation including dynamic compilation), morph, emulate, or otherwise convert an instruction to one or more other instructions to be processed by the core. The instruction converter may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. The instruction converter may be on processor, off processor, or part-on and part-off processor.

Thus, techniques for performing one or more instructions according to at least one embodiment are disclosed. While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on other embodiments, and that such embodiments not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon studying this disclosure. In an area of technology such as this, where growth is fast and further advancements are not easily foreseen, the disclosed embodiments may be readily modifiable in arrangement and detail as facilitated by enabling technological advancements without departing from the principles of the present disclosure or the scope of the accompanying claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A processor, comprising: a core; and a scheduler, including: a first logic to queue a first parent operation; a second logic to queue a second parent operation; a third logic to queue a child operation that includes a first source that is dependent on the first parent operation and a second source that is dependent on the second parent operation; a first dependency matrix; a second dependency matrix; a fourth logic to store a physical address of the first source of the child operation in the first dependency matrix; a fifth logic to store a physical address of the second source of the child operation in the second dependency matrix; a sixth logic to perform a first tag comparison between a physical address of a destination of the first parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation in response to a dispatch of the first parent operation; a seventh logic to perform a second tag comparison between a physical address of a destination of the second parent operation and the physical address of the second source of the child operation in response to a dispatch of the second parent operation; and a ready determination unit including an eighth logic to determine that the child operation is ready for dispatch based on the first tag comparison and the second tag comparison.
 2. The processor of claim 1, wherein the scheduler further includes: a ninth logic to apply a logical exclusive-OR (XOR) function to the physical address of the destination of the first parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation to determine that the child operation is dependent on the first parent operation; and a tenth logic to apply a logical XOR function to the physical address of the destination of the second parent operation and the physical address of the second source of the child operation to determine that the child operation is dependent on the second parent operation.
 3. The processor of claim 1, wherein the scheduler further includes a ready determination unit including a ninth logic to determine, based on the first tag comparison performed in response to the dispatch of the first parent operation, that the child operation is available for dispatch.
 4. The processor of claim 1, wherein the scheduler further includes a ready determination unit including a ninth logic to determine, based on the second tag comparison performed in response to the dispatch of the second parent operation, that the child operation is available for dispatch.
 5. The processor of claim 1, wherein the scheduler further includes an allocator that includes: a ninth logic to receive an additional operation; a tenth logic to determine dependencies of a first source and a second source of the additional operation on pending operations queued in the scheduler; an eleventh logic to write a first dependency, associated with the first source of the additional operation, to the first dependency matrix; and a twelfth logic to write a second dependency, associated with the second source of the additional operation, to the second dependency matrix.
 6. The processor of claim 5, wherein the ready determination unit includes a thirteenth logic to apply a logical OR function to each matrix bit, in the first and second dependency matrices, associated with the additional operation, to determine whether the additional operation is ready to dispatch.
 7. The processor of claim 1, wherein the scheduler further includes: a ninth logic to dispatch a pending operation; and a tenth logic to clear any dependency, based on the pending operation, from the first and the second dependency matrices, in response to the dispatch of the pending operation.
 8. A system, comprising: a core; and a scheduler, including: a first logic to queue a first parent operation; a second logic to queue a second parent operation; a third logic to queue a child operation that includes a first source that is dependent on the first parent operation and a second source that is dependent on the second parent operation; a first dependency matrix; a second dependency matrix; a fourth logic to store a physical address of the first source of the child operation in the first dependency matrix; a fifth logic to store a physical address of the second source of the child operation in the second dependency matrix; a sixth logic to perform a first tag comparison between a physical address of a destination of the first parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation in response to a dispatch of the first parent operation; a seventh logic to perform a second tag comparison between a physical address of a destination of the second parent operation and the physical address of the second source of the child operation in response to a dispatch of the second parent operation; and a ready determination unit including an eighth logic to determine that the child operation is ready for dispatch based on the first tag comparison and the second tag comparison.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the scheduler further includes: a ninth logic to apply a logical exclusive-OR (XOR) function to the physical address of the destination of the first parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation to determine that the child operation is dependent on the first parent operation; and a tenth logic to apply a logical XOR function to the physical address of the destination of the second parent operation and the physical address of the second source of the child operation to determine that the child operation is dependent on the second parent operation.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the scheduler further includes a ready determination unit including a ninth logic to determine, based on the first tag comparison performed in response to the dispatch of the first parent operation, that the child operation is available for dispatch.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the scheduler further includes a ready determination unit including a ninth logic to determine, based on the second tag comparison performed in response to the dispatch of the second parent operation, that the child operation is available for dispatch.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the scheduler further includes an allocator that includes: a ninth logic to receive an additional operation; a tenth logic to determine dependencies of a first source and a second source of the additional operation on pending operations queued in the scheduler; an eleventh logic to write a first dependency, associated with the first source of the additional operation, to the first dependency matrix; and a twelfth logic to write a second dependency, associated with the second source of the additional operation, to the second dependency matrix.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the ready determination unit includes a thirteenth logic to apply a logical OR function to each matrix bit, in the first and second dependency matrices, associated with the additional operation, to determine whether the additional operation is ready to dispatch.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the scheduler further includes: a ninth logic to dispatch a pending operation; and a tenth logic to clear any dependency, based on the pending operation, from the first and the second dependency matrices, in response to the dispatch of the pending operation.
 15. A method, comprising: queuing a first parent operation in a scheduler; queuing a child operation in the scheduler, the child operation including a first source that is dependent on the first parent operation; storing a physical address of the first source of the child operation in a first dependency matrix; dispatching the first parent operation; performing a first tag comparison between a physical address of the destination of the first parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation in response to dispatching the first parent operation; determining, based on the first tag comparison performed in response to the dispatch of the first parent operation, that the child operation is ready for dispatch; and dispatching the child operation.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the first tag comparison comprises applying a logical exclusive-OR (XOR) function to the physical address of the destination of the first dispatched parent operation and the physical address of the first source of the child operation to determine that the child operation is dependent on the first parent operation.
 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising: queuing a second parent operation in the scheduler; storing a physical address of a second source of the child operation in a second dependency matrix; dispatching the second parent operation; performing a tag comparison between a physical address of the destination of the second parent operation and the physical address of the second source of the child operation in response to dispatching the second parent operation; and determining that the child operation is ready for dispatch based further on the second tag comparison.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: queuing an additional operation in the scheduler; determining whether the additional operation depends on any pending operations queued in the scheduler; and storing a first dependency, based on a first source of the additional operation, in the first dependency matrix.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising storing a second dependency, based on a second source of the additional operation, in a second dependency matrix.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: dispatching a pending operation; clearing any dependency, based on the pending operation, from first and second dependency matrices in response to the dispatching of the pending operation; and applying a logical OR function to each matrix logic bit of the first dependency matrix and the second dependency matrix associated with the queued additional operation to determine whether the queued additional operation is ready to dispatch. 